Is it possible to dye an antique lace piano shawl?

[Lauriefairycake]

I bought it off ebay and it arrived today and has washed beautifully. It's in a particularly ugly shade of pale peach which is very faded in the middle (probably been over a table).

I want to dye it pink so it's all one colour - the embroidery is darker, reds and greens so I'm hoping that only the base colour will dye.

Am I deluded?

mmm, no expert Lauriefairycake ( v. intrigued by thread title ) but I think depends on fabric ....

If it's cotton or wool I think it would probably be OK but would use darker colour so embroidery not too visible .....perhaps???

I shold have said, it's definitely 100% silk - even the thread is silk and the very deep fringing

Everything will take the dye including the embroidery. Sooooo if you dye it pink, the green threads will go brown ( red/green complementary pair when mixed together makes a tertiary colour)

Even a light pink will have some effect. Silk should dye easily.

The embroidery will change colour too. If it's reds and greens whatever colour you go for one of them is going to end up a gunky brown.
The heat may damage it for good.
What about bleaching instead?
Or learning to love it?

If you do manage it, or after washing, I have a tip for untangling the fringing:

Get a bucket of water and untangle underwater in small sections. Pull the untangled sections out, keep the fringes untangled and dab dry with a towel then immediately iron straight and dry.

How antique is antique? It might not survive the dyeing process. Silk is notoriously fragile. What kind of condition is it in?

What did you wash it in? And ironing could be the absolute end of it unless you use the lowest setting and lots of wadding.

I am having kittens about this. I used to be a museum curator, can you tell?

I guess 1920's, it has some 'thin' patches, almost holes but not quite

I do love it but it's slightly too faded to wear- i may just put it over a table if I'm too scared to dye it

But right now I want to dye it

washed it on 30 degrees with the tiniest amount of washing powder - it was dirty and it got out all the stains

Ooo, it doesn't sound like it will last long anyway TBH, not in the open air. If you do dye it, try a cold water dye and don't wring it or be rough in any way. It would be best to dry it flat over towels as hanging it whilst wet would probably put too much stress on the fibres. If you can avoid ironing it then that would be a big help.

Please tell me you used soap flakes or something designed for woollens and delicates

Could you cold water dye it? (not washing machine)

Then wash in washing machine again in a pillowcase to protect it???

I did Provincial and it's come out lovely

I will buy a pale pink Dylon dye and do it in cold water - my lovely Miele machine does and entirely cold wash with no spinning - i dyed a pile of denim last year and it came out fab -

but I want to be gentle with this item

I'm still a touch scared........

Good luck with it. It's not a museum piece anyway and you won't use if it's an ugly colour etc. Just be as gentle as is humanly possible and accept that it might not survive the chemicals. It might be fine at first but start to disintegrate over time. But at least you will have had some pleasure from it.