Unfortunately, these items get dirty with spilled food, sticky candy hands, pet stains, and dust. With a bit of special care, most can be cleaned and treasured for years to come.
Velvet: Stockings made from velvet should be dry cleaned by a professional cleaner. If they are wrinkled, never press with an iron, or you’ll have the imprint of the iron’s soleplate left as a permanent decoration. Use steam to lift the fibers and a soft brush to leave them silky smooth. Needlepoint or Cross-Stitch: Needlepoint stockings are beautiful and took someone a very long time to create. To brighten the colors, give them a good vacuuming with the upholstery brush. If they are stained, take them to a professional dry cleaner. Cross-stitch is usually done on a fabric that can be hand-washed. Be sure to test the threads for colorfastness before proceeding. Felt: Felt stockings should also head to a dry cleaner. Felt is prone to shrinking and fading and should never be saturated with water. If the stocking has embellishments like sequins or beading, any type of cleaning may destroy the design if the decorations are glued on. Proceed with caution. To remove dust, place the stocking in a mesh bag and tumble in the dryer on the unheated air cycle. Knit or Crochet: These stockings are the easiest to clean. Hand-wash in lukewarm water with a gentle detergent just like a sweater. Rinse well—never wring out water or the fabrics will stretch. Dry flat and reshape to the correct size. Wool: Wool woven stockings can be hand-washed in tepid water or sent to a professional cleaner. Dry flat and press with pressing cloth if needed. Quilted: Quilted stockings should be hand-washed in cool water to prevent fading or color bleeding. Rinse well and dry flat.
If the pillow has a removable cover, follow the fabric care label instructions. Most will need to be dry cleaned, but you can often use a home dry cleaning kit for lightly soiled items. Be sure to pretreat the stains using the kit’s cleaning solvent. If the tree skirt is adorned with beads, sequins, metallic threads or appliques, lace, felt, quilted designs, multicolored prints, and other types of decorative trim, it cannot be washed safely due to the glues and adhesives used. Time to head to the dry cleaners.
