We visited a new-to us antiques shop last month and were greeted with the announcement that the shop was having a sale. Being a true Yankee, the word “sale” speaks to my thrifty nature. There were even deeper discounts in the basement. Well, there was nothing down there that I would remotely thing of toting home but on the partition of the stairwell hung two embroidered linens that had, as they say, “seen better days.” Barely glancing at them, I knew that I wanted to say them from being hung by a safety pin through a corner of both of them. They had words on them and I love textiles with words. I did not like the price, especially considering their condition: very dirty, musty-smelling (a sure sign of mold), and visible holes.

My textile “rescue” project. photo by James Cummings

When I asked if they were discounted, the store clerk’s friendly demeanor changed. They were hanging in the stairwell, and were not IN the basement itself, so no, the price stood as marked. I hedged. The price was too high for what they were. Seeing that I was about to change my mind, she made a counter offer; one that I could accept.

I spent time deliberating on just how I wanted to clean them. I thought of using my usual method of a mixture of soapy water created by combining Orvus soap and Ivory liquid dish detergent but I was out of both of those cleaning agents. These two linen textiles continued to sit there waiting for my attention until today. I reasoned that anyone else would have just thrown these out and that I’d take a chance and wash them with Cheer free and clear laundry detergent on the “hand wash” cycle of the washing machine and would rinse them twice, using a warm wash/ cold rinse cycle. When they were finished washing, I hung them outside on the clothesline. The sun seemed to bleach out some of the stains and when they were dry, I pressed them both with an iron on maximum heat (linen setting). They came out amazingly well. One of them already has areas that were “darned” in order to lengthen the useful life of this textile that was probably used to dry dishes.

I will not “use” the towels for anything other than to show you their photos. The other one is comical and was most certainly made by the same individual. I’ll post that another time. These both appeared to have been made from stamped designs. They are what one might call “quaint.” I guess I just like to rescue old textiles and “appreciate” them for what remains. In storing them, even though the sun and the heat may have killed all of the mold spores, I will keep these separate from the rest of my textiles and will wrap them well (just in case). Mold is an insidious problem. I don’t go out of my way to collect known moldy items. In this case, I made an exception. Hope you enjoy the photo!

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