I love that. It reminds me of the beautiful things my aunts had back in the 50's.

OK Don't be horrified, but I restore natural fabrics all the time...here's the secret :) (I have restored many a table cloth that everyone gives up on). Fill a bathtub with hot water, and DENTURE CLEANER :) Yup denture cleaner. I normally use, about a dozen tablets for a large item, half a dozen for a dress, less in a smaller bucket of hand made laces. And let it soak. Just like dentures, it targets the natural enemy's of teeth and fabric, coffee, acid, body oder marks (which are the worst enemy of antique dresses). It works on linen and cotton as well as silk, but silk takes a different process depending on the silk stregnth (pre 1930's normally can't take it). But a 100 plus year old table cloth...easy stuff. Let it soak until the stains are gone. Try to get cheap denture cleaner (less likely to have any fancy crap in it for freshness but if those are there they won't hurt). As long as the fabric is natural cotton or linen it will work like a charm and the hard soaking will deal with the wrinkle issue. When clean let the tub drain, then using the palms of your hannds push it in bunches down against the tub base to softly squeeze out the water (it's not as delicate as you'd think). Then take it out of the tub and lay it on a bunch of towels (lay them out sort of like a big blanket. Roll the table cloth in the towels and then once again, with the palms of your hands squish it down again to let the towels soak up the excess water. Hang it over the shower rod. If the thing is so far gone the threads are rotted you'd know that because it fell apart when ironing. If it can handle an ironing it can handle the above. I actually wash mine (after restoration) in a machine on gentle and then dry them in a cool dryer. If they're not strong enough for that they're not strong enough for use on the table :) I personally iron mine right on the table with a thick cloth (comforter etc) inbetween. I use a steam iron, but I also keep a bottle of spray water and use that on each section as I work on the cloth. I don't care for startch but many do use that on them. This denture cleaner technique is the friend of anyone who loves antique linens. It will remove color so for any items with color it's a last ditch effort to be considered but really, last ditch! My only bad experience is when I did some hand tatted lace (huge amount of it) that was what loooked like a natural tan color but in fact was gray naturally which I found out when it was cleaned. I'd purchased it for a specific project so I had to scramble to find that amount again, but while doing so I made somethng else for the gray. :)

I, too, love Mrs. Meyer's Lemon Verbena. They even make a toilet bowl cleaner in that line. However, it doesn't help me avoid the BIG thing I'm trying to avoid - a toilet bowl brush (see original post). I've tried to find single use toilet bowl brushes which do not contain a cleaner, just so I could use the Mrs. Meyer's product. The closest I got was a patent application for one. Never could find that it had gotten to the marketplace. In my search, I found an hilarious bulletin board in the UK about toilet cleaning. It was much blunter about some of the ickier aspects of the job than we have been. One suggestion was to buy scrubbie-backed sponges at the dollar store, cut them up and use them with the wand like I have. I may have to give that a try. I also found where someone had taken a jar from a beauty supply place (the kind used to sanitize combs) and modified it to fit the toilet brush handle through the lid. He kept the brush in it sitting in some sort of disinfectant. Fairly ingenious, but just another thing to clean.

As some of you know I collect laundry detergent. ..I don't open vintage or discontinued detergents but if I'm testing a current day brand that for whatever reason I don't use for laundry I use it in the toilet bowl than scrub with the brush. Exterior gets wiped down with either a solution of chlorine bleach and water or dispisable antibacterial wipes. My toilets (2) get cleaned daily. Its an OCD thing.