Featured Crewel Work Tablecloth, Need Help with Restoration

This is a vintage tablecloth I bought recently. It seems to have been displayed hanging over a narrow table, with something resting over the top of it (with tabs on the sides?). On the back it is all an olive green, but the colour on the right side has been faded out of the sides, leaving the central part which was protected from the light the original green. The actual embroidery doesn't look like it has faded, which is a good sign. There is no smell of mustiness or smoke.
I would like to fade the rest of the cloth so that it is all a cream colour, but how should I do this? Would giving it a gentle wash help? There is a curved stain I would like to get out, but washing it would be a bit difficult due to lack of space to dry it, so I would wait to at least the springtime.
Any help or comments welcome!

 

Since crewel embroidery is generally done with wool on cotton cloth, I would not wash it. The yarn could shrink unevenly with the cotton and could bleed, destroying the whole piece. I would ask a trusted dry cleaner for ideas. It's really pretty and many hours were spent working it, so be gentle.

 

Thank you for this advice, I think that to risk ruining it with a wash is now not an option. What do you think of this idea? I could fold the faded panels to the back and tack them in place, and then find somewhere to lay it out in bright light to fade the rest to the same colour. It might take a long time, but since the yarn seems ok on the faded bit maybe it would work, although bright light is a bit of a rarity in England at the moment! I am just a sucker for the exuberance of crewel embroidery and its great variety of stitches. I think I will take photos of areas of the edges meanwhile, and turn them into cards, although my friends are not so much embroidery lovers as I am

 

It seems a shame to intentionally damage the majority of such lovely work, to make it match the faded portion. imo

 

I agree I wouldn't intentionally damage it.

One thing that bothers me is that one side (right in the photo) has a much wider 'blank edge' to it. It is finished on all 4 sides?

 

Sorry for late reply! The wider edge is, rather strangely, on the cut edge, so the embroidery fits on three sides and there is more spare space on one cut edge. The cut edges are very loosely finished with a kind of buttonhole stitch. I would have thought that the embroiderer would have shortened that edge to match, but I think that this piece was made to be displayed on a particular table, and the wider edge went at the back, which is why that piece of cloth is much less faded than the other side. I have drapted the cloth with a dark portion exposed to the winter light - very short and mostly cloudy at the moment - and will see if it gradually fades the cloth. The wool is quite colourfast, the stitching on the faded cloth has not faded with it, so don't worry about damage to it!

 

The quality of the embroidery is excellent! I don't find the darker stripe in the middle "put offing". It almost looks like an intentional wide stripe fabric... I personally wouldn't worry much about the stripes.

A bigger worry to me is it's grubbiness....and you may indeed find that it is just dirt! I would ask a knowledgeable cleaner re: having it dry cleaned... and perhaps do some research about "setting colors" with cotton (?) embroidery.

"IF" you deem it "washable" after some research and taking steps to protect it from bleeding; I'd most certainly HAND wash in cold water. NO wringing! Just soaking, rinsing and soaking. Roll it up to get it out of the water... support where you can and you could probably squeeze out extra water IF it hasn't bled. Then lay out on a waterproof flat surface and finger press it to a square shape.

Good luck! It is a great piece!
Cheerio,
Leslie