Cleaning Lace Curtains.
Lace curtains will not bear rubbing. All the work must be done carefully and gently. For two pairs of curtains half fill a large tub with warm water, and add to it half a pound of soap, which has been shaved fine and dissolved in two quarts of boiling water; add also about a gill of household ammonia. Let the curtains soak in this over night. In the morning sop them well in the water, and squeeze it all out; but do not wring the curtains. Put them into another tub of water, prepared with soap and ammonia, as on the night before; sop them gently in this water, and then, after squeezing out the water, put them in a tub of clean warm water. Continue to rinse them in fresh tubs of water until there is no trace of soap; next, rinse them in water containing bluing. After pressing out all the water possible, spread the curtains over sheets on the grass; or, if you have no grass, put them on the clothes-line. When they are dry, dip them in hot thick starch, and fasten them in the frame that comes for this purpose. If you have no frame, fasten a sheet on a mattress, and spread the curtains on this, pinning them in such a manner that they shall be perfectly smooth and have all the pattern of the border brought out. Place in the sun to dry. If it be desired to have the curtains a light écru shade, rinse them in weak coffee; and if you want a dark shade, use strong coffee.
If the curtains be dried on a mattress they must be folded smoothly, the size of the mattress. Lace curtains can be spread two or three thicknesses in the frame.