Vintage Wednesday: Caring for Vintage Napkins

When preparing for a dinner party or afternoon tea, I want to make sure my linens are fresh and ready to go. There are definite dos and don'ts in the care of linens. I wanted to share a couple tips on how to make these vintage beauties shine.

First, be sure to wash your linen napkins in a mild detergent and wash them well. I like to soak mine in Biz overnight and rinse them out in cold water. I keep a clean white hand towel next to the sink and lay each napkin one on top of the other as I rinse them out. I then roll up the towel to help drain the excess water.

To ensure crisp napkins, I like to iron them dry. In order to keep from crushing the embroidery, you should determine the front side of the napkin, lay it face down on a clean terry towel and iron them from the back side. That way the embroidery will be cushioned in the terry and not be smashed with the weight of the iron. Be sure to keep the iron moving at all times to make sure you don't scorch your linens. If you do, throw it back in your Biz mixture and let the scorch mark soak out.

I like to keep two sections on my towel - one for a dead wet napkin and one for a partially dry napkin. I initially put the napkin in the wet section and after a couple passes, move it to a drier part of the board to finish ironing the water out. Sometimes the moisture looks like it's gone but the napkin feels a little damp, I just fold it and lay it aside to allow it to finish air drying. Voila, perfect napkins without starch!