It depends on what they are made of and what they are stained with.

Some items clean up with Oxyclean and some with Borax, but if you use the wrong thing, you can destroy the textile.

If no one here can give you answers, try over at the bay on the vintage textile boards.
They are an amazing bunch of ladies with vast information about how best to clean items.

Oh and as a last idea, some stained doilies can be tea stained and they look nice like that.

I use Oxyclean and Zout on mine. If that doesn’t work (and on some stains it won’t) if they are made of cotton thread and white in color, I use 1-part Clorox to 10-parts water. I always use bleach as a last resort. If they are ecru, I have had to use bleach and then tea-stain them to bring them back to ecru.

For White Vintage Barbie clothes that are delicate materials, I soak them in efferdent….no lie….Cleans them great and won’t damage them. Sure it would work for doilies.

Do not use chlorine bleach. It will eat the fabric. Soak in regular Tide laundry detergent and vinegar for about an hour. If you are soaking one doily I would use about 1/8 cup Tide and 2 tablespoons vinegar. I saw this on the show where the 2 British women go in and clean up horrible messes. I also saw this on a show showing how to clean antique doilies. I did it and it worked.

i inheritated a bunch a few years ago that my grandma had tatted and almost all had stains of some sort. i bought a few of those small laundry bags from walmart and washed 3 doilies at a time in each bag. used warm water and dawn dishsoap with oxyclean in the washing machine. out of about 45 doilies, all the stains came out execpt one that i think had what looked like brown varnish. hope this helps!

Are you ready to read for some instructions, advise, and etc? I came across a place that gives you ideas, and tells you of what you should & should not do for cleaning vintage linens. Thought I lost it, but I did have it bookmarked.

Anyway, here is the sight to visit for this [URL removed]
[URL removed]

This place shows pictures of how things are washed, tells you to pre-rinse items of any chemicals like bleach & detergent, and to use white vinegar on a rinse, and etc.

Very interesting, and I believe you will find helpful [URL removed] Good Luck to [URL removed]

Plain VINEGAR

On an episode of Curb your Enthusiasm, Larry used salt and club soda for a carpet stain. Maybe that can work for doilies too. Good luck!

I Use Woolite and hand wash, after they have scoked in it about 1hr.in warn water.

I have actually sent a few to my dry cleaners :-) They did a safe, awesome job.

Thank you ladies for the tips :)

lol about the dry cleaners.

Vintagemaven, when you say tea stains, you literally mean the color on the whole material appears as a tea-stained color and not just tea-stained spots, right? If so, I have seen those and know what you mean. I do like the look of them this way, too.

Nancy, you mean efferdent teeth wash, right? That is cool and inexpensive.

I have some pieces that I need to clean where I could practice. They are in a box that I was going to put in a yard sale because I tried cleaning them before and like said I could not. I can pull them back out. Thank you so much. I’ll still keep this up and see what others have to say :)

PS. Anyone ever try to starch these and then iron afterward. I have had a few get destroyed after doing this and a few not. Is there a special trick to using the starch and then ironing safely?

I use Ivory Snow Flakes. Boil the water in a large pot, add the Ivory Snow Flakes, turn the heat OFF, put the items in, put the lid on and soak overnight.

After soaking rinse thoroughly, or launder with a regular detergent and then dry. If possible dry in the sunlight outdoors for a few hours. Do not dry lace doilies in the dryer.

I buy alot of old sheets (because I don’t like the new ones)and this usually does the trick. I jam the sheets into the pot which is not super large…I use the enamel Le Creuset only because that is what I have.

Not all stains will come out but this method works very well on most items I have tried and these flakes are textile friendly.

Good luck.

Some items like lace curtains and doilies can be safely cleaned of normal dirt by immersing them in a container of warm water with denture cleaning tablets in it. I put them on a wire rack with legs and put the tablets below. Do not let the tablets touch the cloth. Just let them soak for a while, remove from the water, place on a clean towel and gently roll it up to remove excess moisture. Then hang to air dry.

It cleans without damaging the fragile textiles. It will not remove tea stains or very heavy soils but does work particularly well on cigarette smoke stains.

If there is a spot, you can try using a little bit of liquid dishwasher detergent on a cloth and try to rub out the stain. It needs to be rinsed very well afterward and should never be used on anything that isn’t white (it will bleach it out).

Also for some stains there is this stuff called Goop that they sell at automotive shops. It is supposed to be a hand cleaner but I have used it on fabrics to remove really tough stains (rust, grease, blood etc). It smells like orange and is very gentle. Also, really cheap.

Hope that helps.

see if you can find all fabric bleach…not CHLORINE bleach…or see if a grocer near you stocks a product called BIZ…soak for a day or 2 in room temp water….works well

URGHHHHHH to chlorine bleach. Oh my gosh it will eat right through the fabric and eventually create holes. NEVER use it on vintage items.

Also, vintage, especially all cotton, items should never be taken to the dry cleaners. Their chemicals will break down and destroy the fabrics.

Of course, if all you care about is how it looks to sell and not care about the longevity of the item then by all means clean with bleach and take to the dry cleaners.

There are products available at your local quilt shops that have amazing results in removing stains. One product is called “SEW CLEAN” from Bear Thread Designs that does a great job. Spendy but works at small spots.

I find Biz works on just about anything and I use a a stain stick let it sit overnite some people say the freezer I’ve tried both. I drink coffee a lot and have had great luck with this stuff. Its just in the laundry aisle usually and I make it into a paste it hasn’t changed the color of my garments the way some do..Good luck

Hi I was reading and these are such great tips.
I did notice no one answered your question about starch and ironing. From what I have read, the best way is to dip your doily in liquid starch, lay it on folded towel and block it by lightly pulling to its intended shape. Let it dry indoors as the sun can be very damaging. No iron needed nor should an iron be used.
So many good tips for stains. The real deal is, it depends on what the stain is, what type of water you have and what the doily is made of. My mo is to go down the list and try every combo and style of stain lifing until the stain is gone. Just do not put it in the washer or twist. What ever method you use, do it by soaking method. No bleach and no sun.
I have a sonic cleaner that I usually use for jewelry and other odds and ends. It literally vibrates soil out. I used Oxyclean in the sonic cleaner. I have used it on small cloth items without any negative side effects. The vibrating does not hurt the threads. If you have one, this might be helpful in loosening the stain. Remember some stains aren’t going anywhere.

The best stain remover I ever used was the Orange Spot Remover in a spray can. It was one of the items you would get when sending for the Orange cleaners that were advertised years ago on TV about the same time Oxyclean came out. It may have even been made by the same company. Anyway, I used it on 5 year old ink stains on the back seat of my car. The upholstery is a light gray material. I sprayed it on dabbed and dabbed. It just lifted it right out. Never left a mark and did not lighten the gray color of the upholstey at all. It was like a miracle. Why they stopped making it I will never know. It was one of those products that were tough on the stains but super gentle to the material.
There is a stain remover you can get at most stores called Love or Love it. Something like that. It is in a green squeeze bottle, cost about $1.50 and runs a close second to the Orange Spot Remover they discontinued. Very gentle but lifts most everything. Good luck Best Robin

i BELIEVE WHITE VINEGAR CAN HELP

PUT THEM IN THE SUN IT TAKES MOST STAINS OUT OF ANY THING KIM

After many methods tried, it’s the Oxyclean that seems to work best for me. I put the doily, hanky, etc in a tupperware bowl with a liberal amount of Oxy then set it aside for many hours. When rinsed out, the stains are almost always gone.

I actually removed rust stains using lemon juice on the spot holding it carefully over a steaming kettle or boiling water..they dissapeared before my eyes.
I have also heard of using buttermilk and placing the article in the sun..works great getting baby stains out on front of clothing.
I will try the dental tablets if I ever have a need to, I still have a few doilies packed away I made years ago with spots on them .

I got a tip from my mother-in-law and I use it whenever I have rust in something. Lemon juice and salt in a glass container. Its very mild. It will take a long time so have patience. It took one piece more than a week.

Just curious if anyone has ever tried hydrogen peroxide, the medicinal one, not the one used to dye your hair. Just a thought.

Very good suggestions here. If you can find AMODEX stain remover, you might try that; it’s very gentle and works!!

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