Stain Removal from Cotton?

Shalinar said:

Hi all!

I've got a button-up shirt, nothing fancy or expensive, that I just LOVE the color of, and haven't been able to find elsewhere in my size (I'm super skinny). A while ago, I washed it and when I took it out of the wash, it had a stain on it that wasn't there when I put it in. I was looking to just replace the shirt for a while but since I cant find another, I've decided to try to remove the stain myself instead. I've been reading some of the other posts here on stain removal, but the ones I've read haven't seemed to be quite what I need... or at least I'm just not sure. Anyway the shirt is 97% cotton, and I saw somewhere that it might not be safe to use hot water on cotton (the tag also says machine wash cold). The stain itself has a "liquid" shape to it, it's not individual dots but a large, spread out pool of stain. I think the main reason I'm asking here is because I really haven't quite been able to determine what caused the stain. Perhaps detergent? Fabric softener? Oil? They each seem to have a different method of removal so I want to make sure I don't do irreparable damage. I'd like to know what you would recommend for removal, or at least how I can figure out what kind of stain it is so I can research and continue from there.

I know it's probably difficult to diagnose without a photo. I'll upload a picture when I can, I tried to take some but it was very hard to see the stain and I'm on my way out right now.

Thanks in advance for any help.

~Chris

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Bob Loblaw said:

Without knowing the provenance of the stain it would be difficult to come up with a cleaning strategy. I would take the shirt to a professional and see what they can do to clean it.

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