215. _To make Old Silk look as well as New._--Unpick the dress, put it into a tub and cover it with cold water; let it remain an hour; dip it up and down, but do not wring it; hang it up to drain. Iron it very damp, and it will look well.
216. _To clean Silks._--A quarter-pound of soft soap, a teaspoonful of brandy, a pint of gin. Mix all well together. With a sponge or flannel spread the mixture on each side of the silk without creasing it. Wash it in two or three pails of cold water, and iron on the wrong side when rather wet.
217. _To remove Stains from Silks._--Stains produced by vinegar, lemon-juice, oil of vitriol, or other sharp corrosives, may often be removed from silks by mixing a little pearlash with soap-lather and passing the silk through them. Spirits of hartshorn will also often restore the color.
218. _To dip Rusty Black Silk._--Boil logwood and water half an hour, in which simmer the silk for the same time; then take it out, and put into the dye a little blue vitriol, or green copperas; cool it, and simmer the silk in it for half an hour. Or, boil a handful of fig-leaves in two quarts of water until it be reduced to one pint; squeeze the leaves, and bottle the liquor for use. When wanted, sponge the silk with it.
The word _Poison_ should be written on the bottle.
219. _Black Reviver._--Upon two ounces of powdered logwood, and half an ounce of green copperas, pour three pints of boiling water: let it stand till cold, when strain for use, by sponging the faded stuff with it.
To revive black cloth, boil it with logwood in water for half an hour, the cloth having been previously cleaned, dipped in warm water, and squeezed dry; next, take out the cloth, add a small piece of green copperas, and boil it another half hour; then hang it in the air an hour or two, rinse it twice or thrice in cold water, dry it, and finish it with a soft brush, over which two or three drops of olive oil have been rubbed.
220. _White Satin._--Stone blue and flannel will make white satin look nearly new, especially if rubbed afterwards with crumbs of bread.
221. _Blond Lace._--When blond lace gets tumbled, breathing upon it, and afterwards shaking it, will be found to answer the purpose of an iron, without chance of making the lace look yellow, as it probably would be by the use of an iron. There is no necessity for unpicking the lace.