Tuesday, May 22, 2012

How to Get Brown Spots Out of Textiles

Hello everyone, checking in today with not much quilty news.  I have been decluttering the house, making trips to the Goodwill to donate tons of stuff, and throwing out an amazing amount of things that I decided we could do without.  The Youngsville Public Library had a book sale last Saturday, and I donated twelve cartons of books!

I have weeded, and put out landscape fabric, and 35 huge bags of mulch.  You don't need to go to the gym on days when you work like that in the garden!

Charlie was working on the vast space under the house where we store things like extra folding tables and Christmas yard decorations.  I was horrified when he came up with a box containing his grandparents' linen and lace tablecloth.  It must have gotten stashed when the tables were put back after our last Christmas party.

It was really dirty, so first I soaked it and washed it in fine detergent.  It still had lots of brown water spots on it, which actually could have been there for sixty years or more, I guess. 

I remembered a tip I had used to get brown spots out of some antique quilts. 

In the US, there is a product called Efferdent for soaking dentures overnight.

Add four or five of the Efferdent tablets to a jar with about a pint of water.  Work the mixture into the brown spots with a washcloth and let soak.  Rub the spots and continue to work in more Efferdent.  I eventually made a less concentrated mixture and let the spots soak in the wet liquid.  Voila, no spots!  Soak and wash the tablecloth again to make sure the product is out of the fabric.

No pictures, so here is one of a young lady I spotted on the greenway this morning when I was walking the dog.  Do you see her standing frozen in the meadow, watching me watching her?


And here is the lovely cascade that tumbles over the large rocks on the creek.


 
Tomorrow we head to the mountains for a very long Memorial Day weekend.  I am really looking forward to it!

2 comments:

Cathie said...

Great tip Jeanne. I will write that one down for sure. Lovely little deer peeking at you. We have a small heard (5-7) on almost every day visit our yard in the am and early evening hours eating everything in site - my roses, hydrangeas, figs, EVERYTHING. I do love my visitors but am getting frustrated with their eating habits. I bought some "liquid fence" and wow does it ever work. (and wow does it ever stink!) Enjoy your trip to the mountains. We are heading to the OBX for five days with our kids and corgis and ferret! Should be an interesting weekend. Have fun and be safe. I will be looking forward to seeing your pictures.

Unknown said...

great tip....glad those came out, that would have been heart breaking to lose such items.