LAUNDERING LACES AT HOME.
By A. M. H.
THOSE who can afford it usually take lace to a professional cleaner, who returns it looking beautifully new, but often very much injured by the use of cleaning fluids; and the only safe way is to have all the laces and dainty lace-trimmed articles washed at home by women under your direct supervision or by yourself. The flimsiest laces may be thoroughly cleaned without suffering the slightest damage if they are carried through the process known as "bottle washing," and it is impossible to wash them without injury by any of the usual methods of laundering. A large glass jar or bottle should be covered first with a strip of flannel securely fastened around, then with a strip of old soft cotton. The lace should be carefully wound around this and tacked to the cloth, using care to have every point basted down smoothly, then roll the bottle in strong suds and press between the hands. It should then be placed in an enamelled kettle filled with a light suds which is to be gradually heated and allowed to boil for ten minutes, after which clear water may be poured over it to rinse it; then set in the sun to dry. When carefully taken from around the bottle the lace will be as fresh and beautiful as when new. Rusty black lace may be restored by soaking for several hours in vinegar and water. The right proportions are two tablespoonfuls of vinegar to a pint of water. When removed from this bath the lace should be rinsed in cold coffee. Another method of freshening black lace is by washing and rinsing in cold tea, using it as if it were water. As a hot iron will make black lace appear rusty, the best way to dry the pieces is to wind them around a bottle filled with warm water, allowing them to remain until dry. Large articles of lace such as white lace veils, Battenburg collars, and fine lace-trimmed handkerchiefs, will require very little rubbing if they are put to soak over night in a warm pearline suds, and this suds should be used for the bottle washing of lace, as anything that saves rubbing is a genuine saving to the laces and all thin fabrics. If laces are ironed, which the best cleaners do not approve of, the ironing should be done over a soft flannel cloth and with a cloth between the iron and the lace. The best way to dry lace is to baste it to a cloth, being very careful to pull the pieces into perfect shape, then draw the cloth smoothly over a board and place in the sun to dry, and lace dried in this way will need no ironing, and short pieces of lace can be spread over a large window pane while they are damp, and when removed from the glass the lace will be crisp and new in appearance.