water; the article should be entirely wetted, or it will spot; light
colors should be steeped in brass, tin, or earthen; and if set at all,
should be set with alum. Dark colors should be boiled in iron, and set
with copperas. Too much copperas rots the thread.

The apothecaries and hatters keep a compound of vitriol and indigo,
commonly called 'blue composition.' An ounce vial full may be bought
for nine-pence. It colors a fine blue. It is an economical plan to
use it for old silk linings, ribbons, &c. The original color should be
boiled out, and the material thoroughly rinsed in soft water, so that
no soap may remain in it; for soap ruins the dye. Twelve or sixteen
drops of the blue composition, poured into a quart bowl full of warm
soft water, stirred, (and strained, if any settlings are perceptible,)
will color a great many articles. If you wish a deep blue, pour in
more of the compound. Cotton must not be colored; the vitriol destroys
it; if the material you wish to color has cotton threads in it, it
will be ruined. After the things are thoroughly dried, they should be
washed in cool suds, and dried again; this prevents any bad effects
from the vitriol; if shut up from the air without being washed, there
is danger of the texture being destroyed. If you wish to color green,
have your cloth free as possible from the old color, clean, and
rinsed, and, in the first place, color it a deep yellow. Fustic
boiled in soft water makes the strongest and brightest yellow dye;
but saffron, barberry bush, peach leaves, or onion skins, will answer
pretty well. Next take a bowl full of strong yellow dye, and pour in a
great spoonful or more of the blue composition. Stir it up well with a
clean stick, and dip the articles you have already colored yellow into
it, and they will take a lively grass green. This is a good plan for
old bombazet curtains, dessert cloths, old flannel for covering a
desk, &c; it is likewise a handsome color for ribbons.