Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse

In my previous blog post, Victoriana – Corsetry using antique Victorian Lace, I wrote about the epic house sale of Vervia Todd that I was involved in a couple of years ago. Amongst the treasures I purchased was a delicate silk lace blouse which had once been worn by Vervia’s Grandmother in the Victorian era.

Although to me, still beautiful, it was in a bad state of repair and was completely overlooked at the sale because of this. Metal hooks that once held the front of the blouse closed had corroded in place and were encircled with bright orangey brown rust stains, parts of the silk mesh had deteriorated and shredded literally to nothing, just a few threads holding silk mesh and lace together, particularly at the back of the neck and one sleeve, and there were a couple of suspect moth holes.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
Rust stains from old metal hooks – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

My first job was to remove the offending metal hooks, carefully using a seam ripper to break the old threads. After some research, I discovered that since Victorian times, lemon juice and salt had been used to lift rust stains from clothing. I was very wary of the acidity of lemon juice and salt, not wanting these to eat away at the lace, so tried it with slight tripidation. I carefully covered each stain and left for an hour. After several repetitions of this process, and thorough rinsing afterwards, the stain’s were markedly less visible and no further damage had occurred to the fabric.

Now I could gently hand wash the entire blouse using Stergene Gentle Care Washing Detergent, which started to lift away some of the years of discolouration. I began to suspect the blouse wasn’t the almost beige colour it presented itself as, but had probably started it’s life as white!

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
The blouse after rust stain removal and gentle washing – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

Next, I had to make some very delicate repairs.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
Repairs and stabilisation to the damage at the back of the neck – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

At the back of the neck, were two areas of damage, the worst was a ripped area where the double layers of silk mesh had deteriorated and shredded. I managed to stitch over these areas to strengthen and stabilise them from further deterioration but it wasn’t very pretty. My only option was to cover this area somehow….but with what? Modern laces would not do, so I searched through my box of treasures.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
An Edwardian lace piece used to cover the repairs – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

Finding a length of Edwardian lace with a similar delicacy and rose pattern to the lace of the blouse, I carefully hand stitched it into a V shape at the back of the neck. This just covered both the areas of damage.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
Edwardian lace piece used to cover the repair – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

With the neck repaired, the blouse now held it’s shape once more so I moved on to the front closure, where the hooks and eyes held the blouse closed. For each hook that had rusted, there was an original hand stitched cotton ‘eye’, still completely useable.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
Original hand sewn ‘eye’ for the metal hooks – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

Adding new, smaller, stainless steel hooks where the previous rusted hooks had been, along with additional small invisible snap fasteners would I hoped, help with any ‘strain’ on the delicate fabric whilst keeping the blouse closed when worn.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
New stainless hooks and invisible snap fasteners – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

I moved on to the sleeves.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
Deteriorated mesh panel in one sleeve – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

One of the beautiful draped cuffs had a deteriorated panel of silk mesh.

Impossible to repair, I looked again to my box of treasures to find a replacement and found a length of Edwardian silk lace on a mesh very similar to that in the sleeve.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
Edwardian Silk Mesh to replace the deteriorated panel – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry
Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
The repaired next to the untouched sleeve – Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry

Carefully cutting out what remained of the damaged mesh, I secured the replacement panel into place with tiny stitches. Once finished, it was barely noticeable even to my critique.

My final mission was to find the best solution for cleaning both this blouse, and all of the antique lace I have. This led me to find Orvus Quilt Soap, a sodium lauryl sulfate with a near-neutral pH solution that’s biodegradable and contains no phosphates. Used by some of the most famous textile archivists in the world, that was a good enough endorsement for me! Shame I had to wait nearly 6 weeks for it to arrive, but once it did I could at last get to work again.

Several hours of soak, rinse, dry, inspect and repeat later……..et voila!

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
Restoration by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry completed and the blouse can once again be worn!

This precious antique is now stored in acid free tissue paper, and kept away from light again to help continue it’s preservation. However, it is available for very careful photo shoot hire. Please send me an email if you’re interested in hiring it.

Restoring a Victorian Lace Blouse
Victoran Lace Blouse restored by Powdered and Waisted Corsetry
Powdered & Waisted

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