When silk cushions, or silk coverings to furniture, become dingy, rub
dry bran on it gently, with a woollen cloth, till clean. Remove grease
spots and stains as in direction No. 410. Silk garments should have the
spots extracted before being-washed--use hard soap for all colors but
yellow, for which soft soap is the best. Put the soap into hot water,
beat it till it is perfectly dissolved, then add sufficient cold water
to make it just lukewarm. Put in the silks, and rub them in it till
clean; take them out without wringing, and rinse them in fair lukewarm
water. Rinse it in another water, and for bright yellows, crimsons, and
maroons, add sulphuric acid enough to the water to give it an acid
taste, before rinsing the garment in it. To restore the colors of the
different shades of pink, put in the second rinsing water a little
vinegar or lemon-juice. For scarlet, use a solution of tin; for blues,
purples, and their shades, use pearl-ash; and for olive-greens, dissolve
verdigris in the rinsing water--fawn and browns should be rinsed in pure
water. Dip the silks up and down in the rinsing water: take them out of
it without wringing, and dry them in the shade. Fold them up while damp:
let them remain to have the dampness strike through all parts of them
alike, then put them in a mangler--if you have not one, iron them on the
wrong side, with an iron only just hot enough to smooth them. A little
isinglass or gum arabic, dissolved in the rinsing water of gauze shawls
and ribbons, is good to stiffen them. The water in which pared potatoes
have been boiled, is an excellent thing to wash black silks in--it
stiffens, and makes them glossy and black. Beef's gall and lukewarm
water is also a nice thing to restore rusty silk, and soap-suds answers
very well. They look better not to be rinsed in clear water, but they
should be washed in two different waters.