How do I …. My Shawl

I am being asked more and more frequently about repairing or strengthening shawls.

Oh, how I wish I had taken classes textile conservation and preservation already. But, I haven’t.

Before proceeding, I want to say I do not encourage the wear of original shawls.

What causes damage to a shawl

Folding creases the thread and causes fractures.
Dryness can dry out the fibers and make them brittle.
Moisture can invite mildew or mold.
Moths can eat holes.
Time is just time as it wears away the life of fiber.
Chemicals/dyes can cause some threads/fibers to be less stable than others. These can deteriorate quicker.

Reading up on the options

Conservation of Historic Clothing at the Museum of Textiles.
“Fabrics use for stabilization” (also read this Terms sheet.)
“Reinforcing Fragile Textiles” from Methods of Conserving Archaeological Material from Underwater Sites by Donny L. Hamilton from Texas A&M University

Further reading

“Preservation begins at home: How to care for your textile collections” by Julia M. Brennan. (This is one of the nicer, easy to follow articles for at home.)***
Caring for Textiles blog.
The Museum Textiles “Issuu” page.
“A Conservator’s Approach to Viewing Textiles”, Textile Society of America, Proceedings of the Seventh Biennial Symposium, Sante Fe, NM, 2000.
Preserving Textiles: A Guide for the Nonspecialist, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana: 1999, 92pp.
“Treating Mrs. Robertson’s 1802 Dress”, Costume Society of America, Dress, Earleville, Md, 1993-4, pp. 65-73.
“Fabric Wallcoverings: Historic Use, Cleaning and Conservation”, Historic Preservation, The Interiors Handbook for Historic Buildings, Vol. II, Washington, DC, 1993, pp. 5. 21-24.