Because of a rodent infestation (don't ask, it was a bad personnel situation), I had to wash some historic items. One was a piece of beautiful drawn thread work. It had been starched and ironed within an inch of its life by the family whose historic house we are converting to a house museum.
After gently handwashing with approved products, there is still remaining starch, and of course now it's wrinkled, with the wrinkles nicely held in place by the residual starch. Is it okay to just leave it like that, or should I wash again until starch residue is gone? Ironing seems like a bad idea on historic textiles, so I'm not even considering that.
Follow-up: is there anything special we should be doing to store starched items, beyond our usual textile storage of neutral tissue and box, as few folds as possible, and padding any folds? This family Really liked their starch.
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| Carolyn Schimandle
Parks Program Coordinator for Interpretation, Region 2: Hellyer, Martial Cottle, Santa Teresa/Bernal, Ed Levin, Alviso, Grant, Penitencia Creek
Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation 5965 Silver Creek Valley Road | San José, California 95138 Admin. Office: 408-355-2200 Mobile: 408-834-2397 carolyn.schimandle@prk.sccgov.org
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