Hi Ruth: Congratulations on your find!
To help remove foldlines, something I would try is to press your handkerchieves without heat: Find some corner of a table you aren't going to need for the next little while. Put down some a layer of paper topped with smooth plastic wrap or some other humidity barrier. Lay down a dampened clean towel, then one handkerchief on top of that, then another dampened clean towel, another handkerchief, an lastly another dampened clean towel. Then lay down another humidity barrier, and pile books on top. The first book should be a good thick large one that will either totally cover your handkerchiefs, or almost cover them. Subsequent books should ideally be just as large, but you can put on smaller ones if you like - the point of the later books is to add weight, so you could also use a tray of canned goods, etc. The weight should be at least 6-7 lbs (3 kg). Let this rest several days until the whole package is completely dry. Since you are in Ottawa, depending on the weather you might want to dampen your towels a little more than you think necessary, because it's wintertime and your air is very dry and you want the towels to stay damp long enough for the dampness to do some good. As I write this I am thinking of thick terrycloth towels. The pile on these will adapt itself to any texture in the handkerchieves. If you're using thin tea towels, you might put an extra one or two between the two handkerchieves so that the texture of one won't press onto the other one. Hope this helps Adele North Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada) On 2012-02-19, at 7:21 AM, Earl & Ruth Johnson wrote: > Lucky me! On a recent holiday in Arizona, U.S.A., I visited an antique store > and sorted through the usual basket of handkerchiefs. Right at the bottom I > found a goldmine - two gorgeous Carrickmacross lace handkerchiefs! They are > of extraordinary quality and still crisp and new looking. And I paid $6.00 > U.S. for the two! Of course, I have no information about their age, where > they were made (likely Ireland), or who made them. > > The handkerchiefs had been folded twice and the fold lines are still very > visible after three weeks. > > Now to my question. I want to remove the fold lines, but how? I am reluctant > to use steam or heat because that might make the handkerchiefs limp and/or the > lace and fabric might shrink differently. I wondered about placing the > handkerchiefs on a damp (not wet) towel, removing them after a few minutes, > then placing them on a dry towel. Do you think that would work? Any other > suggestions? No matter what I do, I expect that the fold lines will always be > somewhat visible. > > > Ruth Johnson > Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
