posted on November 14, 2000 10:12:14 AM new
It's gorgeous, heavy 1940's CERISE rayon, printed with pale pink and green tropical leaves, never used and there are 5 yards BUT it has some storage spots and specks. Is it better to sell it AS IS,...or to wash it and hopefully get it clean, but lose that "unwashed fabric texture"??? What do ya think??
posted on November 14, 2000 10:53:53 AM new
Old rayon is notoriously unstable and "washing" it may destroy it (voice of experience, a wonderful '20s dress of my grandmother's long before I understood textiles). It may be dry clean only. IF you want to go to that trouble and expense, go ahead, but you're going to have to build that into your opening bid (at least I would).
Where are the stains? 5yds is a lot of fabric, and it's likely they can be worked around by an enterprising seamstress; many '40s skirts were multi-gored so even if the stain were PLOP in the center of the fabric it might not make any difference. And how wide is it, BTW?
posted on November 14, 2000 12:37:03 PM new
Hi HCQ! It's 50" wide. It has a finely "corded" texture, exactly like those wonderful wrap type floral 40's robes but the pattern repeat is quite large, and would lend itself to curtains. My 1949 catalogue calls similar fabric Ribbed Rayon Bengaline, and it's 50" wide. It's really great stuff! I guess I'll just list it as is with lotsa photos, and hope for the best! Those qulit tops you helped me with did nicely by the way, thanks again!
posted on November 14, 2000 02:26:48 PM new
At 50" wide and with a large motif, I'd say it's definitely drapery/decor fabric, but obviously without a peek I'm sticking my neck out. I'd put it in Art & Antiques/Textiles/Fabric, myself; most of the good vintage stuff ends up there, as you probably know, although with thousands of entries I just do a keyword search.
I'm guessing it's going to cost you at least $10 to have this cleaned, and then you have to somehow convince the cleaners NOT to press a crease in it anywhere, and the spots may not come out....so I'd sell it as-is. With that quantity, it should do really well.
Jeez, I don't even get a look? Sigh. At least email me with an auction # when you list it. I need new drapes.
Glad the tops did well. The top market seems to be "up" these past weeks. Damned if I know why, because there's no way anybody's going to finish hand-quilting a full-sized quilt by Christmas unless they do it full-time. Maybe they're stocking up for January snowstorm projects?
[ edited by HartCottageQuilts on Nov 14, 2000 02:27 PM ]
posted on November 14, 2000 04:46:17 PM new
Just a thought...
I've had pretty good luck with Dryel for dry-clean-only stuff that I didn't want to pay a fortune to have done professionally. One of the things I like about it is that it is more "controllable" than professional cleaning. You can vary the dryer temperature, the time, and so forth. The prespotting stuff you get in the kit is pretty good, too...and I've never had it damage anything. My greatest fear with older fabrics is that spotting will leave a worse mess than NOT spotting, and this hasn't happened with the Dryel kits.
