Comments on: How can I reuse or recycle yellowing napkins?

By: JacciR

JacciR — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:30:36 +0000

When we lived in Northern Zululand and my kids were in nappies the water quality was terrible. All the Nappies went brownish. My nanny soaked them in hot water and ’sunlight soap’ overnight – I wonder if you have something like it. It is as pure a soap as one can get for laundry, it is green and comes in a big oblong block, nothing fancy? Anyhow, my nappies were bright white in no time. We dried them after washing in the sun.

She also managed to get those age spots out of a Damask tablecloth with a combination of the above, and then the stubborn ones were sprayed with lemon juice and laid out in the sun. This dealt with the spots very nicely.

Hope this helps.

By: Kara

Kara — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:27:44 +0000

If they aren’t too lightweight, I like to use napkins as a backing for embroidered inserts and patches. Many napkins, whether natural or synthetic fibers, are very evenly and firmly woven and make great foundation cloth for many sorts of embroidery and even painting. In many cases, once the piece is finished the background cloth is not seen at all!

Natural fibers can be easily dyed, and usually safely bleached. Synthetics can be rather difficult to dye or bleach. Turmeric and other plant-based dyes like tea are rarely permanent on polyester or acrylic fibers but work fine on nylon, which dyes like wool or silk. If you don’t know the fiber content of the napkins (or any piece of fabric or fiber), you can do a burn test. That’s just what it sounds like; you’re supposed to use a one inch sample and set it on fire, but I’ve done it with a few long threads pulled from seam allowances as well. Difficult to dye synthetics generally smell like melting plastic when burned, especially polyester.
http://www.fabrics.net/fabricsr.asp gives more information about burn testing.

By: Anita

Anita — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:11:07 +0000

I would try to dye them with turmeric — which never comes out, and you’d have uniformly yellow/gold napkins!

By: Bobbie

Bobbie — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:26:06 +0000

I’m not sure if this will work, but it did wonders for an old mattress. Test one napkin to see if it removes yellowing and stains: Fit a spray pump on a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide (the medical kind used for cleaning scrapes and cuts), Spray the item until it is wet, but not soggy, all over. Spread baking soda over the surface and let dry. Do not dry in the sun.