Vintage Stain Fighters!

[Shangas]

Water on its own doesn't work to remove ink-stains. I wish it did, but it doesn't.

 

[rjb1]

Some of the older writing inks were water soluble, others weren't (permanent ink).
It depends on which type of ink is on/in the shirt.
(Remember how in some old movies that rain (or a tear) would smudge the ink on a letter? "Casablanca" for example...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEiDZ9Rgd3s )

 

[Shangas]

Spring and summer are fast approaching. In preparation, I took out a number of my summer shirts today to decide which one to wear out to dinner with the family tonight.

To my horror a number of them were marked on the collars with old perspiration-stains which had not been shifted in previous washes.

Taking inspiration from days of old, I undertook the following mission:

One small bowl of warm water.

3-4 tablespoons of BAKING SODA.

Mix.

Liberally apply water-and-soda slurry to sweat-stains on collar with a spoon. Scrape vigorously with spoon. Carry out this operation in a small, plastic washing-basin to prevent spillage of excess water/soda mix.

For particularly heavy stains, scrub hard, then layer stain with water/soda mix. Leave for 1-3 hours. Return. Resume scrubbing.

For lighter sweat-stains, enough persistence with this method will remove them altogether. With heavier stains, treat them thusly, and then wash them in the machine for added umph!

I had a very nice, sky-blue cotton shortsleeve button-down shirt which is virtually brand new (I only bought it a year or two ago, and have barely worn it). It was heavily marked on the collar with stains. The last time I wore it, I was in the tropical depths of Singapore. That was a year ago, at least. The soda-water trick removed a significant amount of the stain - and it was a HEAVY stain - clearly visible to anybody. The washing-machine ought to handle the rest with ease.

Here's a couple of before-after shots, showing the effects of the baking-soda treatment. This is without the aid of any other cleaning-solutions or the washing machine...

 

[Dragon Soldier]

For removal of very stubborn rust stains, soak the spot(s) in white vinegar and then suspend above a pan of boiling water, carefully obviously, and "scour" the rust spot with salt.

I took rust stains out of a WWII 'housewife' that had had pins in it since the war...