cleaning a piece of belgian lace

[taylormama]

help - how can i do this? It is a small piece which has huge sentimental value so i don't want to destroy it - any ideas????

didn't they used to use Fullers Earth for cleaning delicate fabrics?I'm sure chemists still stock it.

perhaps look up a specialist cleaning company who clean material for stately homes or something. FabricS deteriorate easily so you wouldn't want to risk doing it yourself unless you knew exactly how to do it.

thanks - will try the fullers earth ...

Hi

I used to work in a museum in my former life, so this is what I would do -

Buy distilled water from the chemists, put in a clean shallow glass dish and soak the lace for a few minutes. Agitate the water a bit and then put the lace into another clean dish of water. Have a clean towel ready over a cushion and lay the lace on there to dry naturally - don't use heat. You may want to use a few stainless steel pins to help the lace keep its shape.

If the lace is really dirty you will probably need to use some pure soap flakes..as few as possible to make the distilled water soapy. You will need lots of changes of water to get the soap out completely.

DON'T rub or wring the lace
DON'T use modern detergents
DON'T iron it unless you aboslutely have to, in which case use the lowest setting and several layers of fabric to protect the lace

And when you have finished store the lace flat, not folded (rolled is okay if it is too big), wrapped in acid free tissue paper, which you can often buy at the post office. Keep it in a cool, dry place in the dark and change the tissue paper every year.

HTH
9nut