Vintage Hawaii Map Tablecoth and Scarf - 1950s Hawaiiana

In keeping with my obsessions about maps and Hawaii, I recently came across a couple 1950s pieces that have maps of Hawaii printed on textiles, which for me is kind of like hitting the trifecta.

First up is a printed cotton tablecloth that depicts the Dole map of the Hawaiian Islands from around 1950 or so.  The Dole Food Company was a leading producer of pineapple in Hawaii and in 1937 commissioned a map of the islands from Parker Edwards.  

Similar to Ruth Taylor White's pictorial maps from earlier in the decade (read more about those in my post here ), Edwards used small drawings to indicate major points of interest on each island.

You can just see the same boat with fishermen off the west coast of Oahu on both the Edwards map and the tablecloth.

Edwards' map is framed by bands of indigenous flowers and fish, which is turned into a decorative border on the tablecloth.

This type of printed tablecloth was popular throughout the 1930s, '40s and '50s.  Judging from the two-color printing this one is probably from the 1950s (the 'Remember Pearl Harbor' clearly indicates that it is at least post-1941).  There was a 1950 version of the Dole map done by Joseph Feher, but this piece seems to adhere to the earlier version.

Another similar printed map can be found on this scarf, which could be tied over the shoulders. 

Each corner has a decorative scene that would show well when folded on the diagonal.

Like the tablecloth, this scarf is printed in two colors on cotton, albeit a lighter weight fabric. This type of souvenir scarf was very collectible in the 1950s. 

I'm always looking for more fun Hawaiiana from the first half of the 20th century--be in touch if you have any items you think might be of interest!

Southwest Wool Serape Fragment in Orange with Paper Label

Sometimes I come across a piece I love, but don't necessarily know everything about.  Such as this lovely textile:

It is made of a very fine wool, in a deep orange with multicolored stripes.  Presumably Southwestern US or Mexico--but that is a pretty big category of textiles, and one about which I am pretty ignorant.  I love textiles and have a decent background in things like 18th century French silks, but this lovely thing is definitely outside my purview.

Given its narrow width (it measures 21 x 92 inches), I think it is half of a serape, the traditional blanket-like shawl of the Southwest region. The texture is very soft and the weight is very light (similar to Kashmir and French paisley shawls of the 19th century).

This has a paper label basted on one end. Looks old...ish?

So what is this thing?  Early to mid 20th century?  Rio Grande?  If you have any thoughts, please let me know!

© All text and images are copyright of Jeni Sandberg

How to Care for Vintage Chenille Bedspreads

I love chenille bedspreads and I could probably write a book on them.  I sell a few in my Etsy shop and want to pass along a few words of advice to those who are new to the wonderful world of chenille.  

If you buy your spread from me, it will be clean and ready for use, but if get your spread from an estate or other situation where it is dirty or smelly (ew!), you might want to give it a good cleaning.  In case you are new to chenille, I thought I'd pass along a few tips:

Before you start

Chenille spread before washing—looks pretty dingy, the tufting should be white, not yellow-ish—but otherwise, no holes or tears.

First, take a good look at the ground cloth of the spread.  Most use a heavy cotton sheeting as the ground (some are on a gauzier cotton, or a satin), but countless washings over the decades sometimes leave the fabric very thin--and thin equals weak, which means you have to use extreme care in the cleaning process.   Similarly, even tiny pin holes in the fabric can become big tears if the spread is handled in the wrong way.  Best to be aware of any and all condition issues before you begin.

The small hole you see at the center will probably be fine when washing, but it’s smart to keep an eye on it and treat that area with extra care.

Soaking

I soak spreads before washing them.  This helps get rid of any stains and general dinginess.  I fill a big tub with hot, hot water and a double dose of Oxi-Clean or other such deep cleaner (Biz is great, too). 

This is a 58-quart storage bin filled with water and Oxi-Clean. I fill it with water about half way—the spread will take up space, and you need a bit of room to swish things around.

Stir the Oxi into the water to dissolve it as much as possible. Dissolving the Oxi-Clean is especially important with colored spreads, because it can bleach tiny white spots into the ground cloth if you are not careful. Push the spread into the water.

Gently squish the water through the spread.  If you are using your bathtub, you might have the space to gently stir the whole thing, but be careful.  Wet textiles are extremely heavy and if you tug on them, you run the risk of tearing the fabric.  I will roll the whole spread over in the tub so that the part that started on the bottom gets rotated to the top

I usually wear rubber gloves when I do this—the water is hot and the Oxi-Clean is rough on your skin. I don’t claw at the spread with my fingers but try to keep my hands flat like paddles as I lift it from underneath to turn it in the water. Don’t get clever and use a big spoon or brush—with your hands you get a better feel for what you are doing.

Soak it.  I will generally let the spread sit at least until the water cools, or even overnight.  I’ve never done any damage to a cotton by letting it soak for a good long time.  I’ll push the spread back down into the water just to make sure it stays wet. 

This water has turned a little brown, but I’ve soaked spreads where the water turns opaque… Still, this one will sit overnight, the water will be emptied, then it will get soaked again in a fresh batch of Oxi.

The water might turn brown and smelly (again, eww, this is often from cigarette smoke), in which case you might want to dump the water out of the tub and start again with fresh water and Oxi. 

Once you’ve soaked to your heart’s content, drain the water and gently squish out as much of the Oxi water as possible.  Again, take care not to manhandle your soggy spread.  This is one reason I often use a tub instead of my bathtub—I keep it on the kitchen counter near the sink so that I can either tip it into the sink to drain it (easier with two people—one tips the tub, the other holds the spread from falling into the sink while the water drains out), or use a pot to empty out water until it is light enough to do so. Then you can more easily carry the tub with the still-soggy spread to the washing machine without dripping all over the place. I give the spread a gentle wash to get out the rest of the Oxi-Clean.

**A special word about rust spots--similar to the rust on your car, these orange-y brown spots on fabrics can be ruinous to your old textiles and will burn right through the fibers.   Scrubbing at rust spots can easily lead to holes.  Proceed with extreme caution.

Coral leaves and white squares, circa 1950.

General Care and Laundering

Chenille bedspreads are all cotton, and can be laundered pretty much the same way your other cotton items are. I generally use a detergent that specifies that it prevents colors from fading (I like Woolite Extra Dark Care for colors), just to give a bit of added protection.  Using warm water in the gentle cycle of your washing machine is a good idea, and preferably use a machine without an agitator at the center.

As I said, chenilles are very heavy when wet, so take care to handle gently when removing yours from the washing machine. Try to support the whole spread (really get your arms under the whole thing) instead of picking it up from one corner and tugging it out of the machine--you don't want to tear it!  Sadly, I know this from personal experience.  Once I tore a lovely handmade chenille by not paying attention and yanking on a corner to get it out of the washer. 

Detail of a ring pattern in blue and white—this pattern comes in several different colorways.

Though I seldom use it otherwise, chenilles really benefit from using a liquid fabric softener (like Downy) in the wash. Dryer sheets don't seem to work as well (and they have nasty chemicals in them). Super soft results.

Line drying is better for the planet, and the original care instructions on some chenilles specify 'hang evenly on a line to dry...just shake briskly once or twice while drying to fluff the tufting.' The dryer, though, will give fast and fluffy results! 

Original Cabin Crafts paper tag with care instructions.

But...over time, repeated trips through the washer and dryer will thin your spread, much the way it works on a pair of jeans. It's a little horrifying to see the amount of fluff in the lint trap after drying a chenille bedspread! I keep my chenilles and other bedspreads in rotation so I don't end up washing the same one over and over.

You can also put a dry chenille into the dryer for 10-15 minutes to freshen it up, without running it through the wash.

Cabin Crafts spread, this is the one with the original tag seen above

Storage

Most cotton textiles are best kept in a cool, dry, dark place.  Light is a foe to all textiles.

Don’t store your spread in a plastic bag or bin.  Textiles need to breathe.

Every time you store your vintage spread, fold it a different way.  If you fold it in half along the length, then half way along the width every time, that center point where the two folds meet can start to show wear.  Mix it up and fold it into thirds, or don’t fold it exactly in half so that the crease is in a different place every time. 

If I were craftier, I would make big storage bags out of unbleached muslin for each of my spreads--with a drawstring and a tag to identify it.  This will keep the light and dust off of them.  But I am not so crafty, so I take the lazy way out and often just wrap them in lengths of muslin that I haven’t sewn.

Hope this is useful!  If you have any other questions about chenilles, feel free to be in touch with me.  Enjoy.

I’m always looking to buy old chenille bedspreads, either individual pieces or entire collections. Be in touch with me here if you’d like to discuss selling yours.

You can see more chenilles in my post on all-white summer spreads here.

Brown chenille bedspread with loopy circles

© All text and images are copyright of Jeni Sandberg

Vintage Kitchen Towels -- Wilendur, Vera Neumann - Collectible, Colorful and Eco Friendly

Colorful Vera Neumann linen towel from the 1970s

I’ve always had a thing for fun kitchen towels.  You always use them, so why not have nice ones?  I’m partial to pretty floral patterns printed on linen or cotton and from the 1940s through the ‘70s.  And in today’s eco-minded world, these vintage towels are a great way to avoid the waste of one-time-use paper towels. 

Seashell linen towel by The Ryans

Fun swirly design on linen  by Parisian Prints

If you believe sources like Wikipedia (big grain of salt here, please), tea towel is the English term and Americans just call it a plain old dish towel.  The purpose of this piece of fabric was to dry dishes--linen is absorbent and leaves little lint.  Cotton was used as it became more readily available later in the 19th century.

Printed cotton towel, probably from the 1940s

In the 1930s and '40s you often see towels that were cut from lengths of fabric printed with this use in mind.  So there will often be a border on each end and then a hemmed end on each side where the fabric was cut.  This leads to non-standard sizes and slight wonkiness, but in a pleasantly homemade way.

Wilendur printed cotton dish towel, 1950s

Big textile manufacturers made dish towels, too, including Wilendur and others.  Wilendur (they later became Wilendure) is better known for their tablecloths, but the same heavyweight cotton fabric was used for towels.  (And a PS on Wilendur--am I the only doofus who took a while to figure out that Wilendur is one of those cutesy, retro names?  Their products are long lasting, they 'will endure', get it? I thought it was Swiss name like Winterthur or something!)

This color combination is lovely!

Linen towels became a collectible souvenir in the 1950s and ‘60s.  These were often more decorative than functional and were sometimes used as wall hangings.  Tea towels were like souvenir spoons--you picked one up where ever you traveled. When I was in graduate school at UVA, I worked part time in the gift shop at Monticello where ladies of a certain age always asked for the Monticello tea towel for their collections. 

Calendar towels were especially popular in the 1960s and '70s, this linen one from 1968 by Vera

I'm kind of a rag hag and, no surprise, I have lots of vintage towels.  I used to just keep them stacked up in a cupboard to keep them nice, but really, that's just silly.   I tend to use my prettiest ones for lighter use like just drying off my hands and then towels with ok patterns or a few holes or stains for heavier duty stuff like wiping up spills or dusting. Because I really use them, I tend not to be as interested in the embroidered variety of towel, even if they are a good size (smaller embroidered towels I consider guest towels, those fancy things you never want to sully when you visit someone's house).

Some of my printed cotton towels from the 1940s and 50s

When you‘re shopping for for vintage kitchen towels you’ll find a huge range of price points. Price will depend on color, condition and general desirability of the pattern and maker. 

Vera linen towels in two colorways

Nice towels from the 1940’s and 50’s are getting harder to find in good condition.  I feel like I used to find them for just a couple dollars and now I don’t even see them!  Retro floral designs in reds and blues can be especially charming.  Heading into the ‘60s, you start to see groupings of kitchen items, stagecoaches (huh?), and Pennsylvania Dutch designs.  Humorous and risque towels are fun to find from any era--because a little risque humor always comes to mind when you are drying dishes in the kitchen! 

Risque printed cotton towel, probably from the 1930's or '40s

Do note the tails and horns...

Towels designed by Vera Neumann in the ‘60s and 70‘s are commanding high prices these days--I’ve seen a single towel go for more than $80!  More often, Vera towels can be found in the $20 to $40 dollar range for her fantastic images of flowers, vegetables or bold graphics, all in bright colors and in good condition.  Still, if Vera is your thing, you can definitely find towels for less than $10, you just have to dig a little harder and maybe compromise a bit on condition. 

Two linen towels by Vera Neumann

If you can live with a little bit of wear and a few stains, you can pick up some great towels for less than $5.  That’s generally a lot less than a new towel would cost and you are re-using an existing towel, thereby saving the planet and doing good for one and all.  What could be better?

Novelty linen towel, 1960s

You can find kitchen towels and other linens in my shop here.  I always have a few!


© All text and images are copyright of Jeni Sandberg