Red wine, white shirt - help!?

[Matt]

yeah uh what that says

 

[NoVaguy]

dye the whole thing pink?

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Thats why you wear pink shirts and drink only blush.
Plus spiking your hair up with a lot of gel and listening to Elton John helps somehow.

 

[PITAronin]

Somewhere in the dim and distant past this issue was raised and someone - I supect Fabienne - indicated that her husband had faced a similar situation and that a treatment/overnight soak of the stained shirt in a mix (equal proportions, I'm thinking) of water and one of the blue liquid dish detergents followed by regualr washing did the trick. Anyone with a better memory than I have of the techique used?

 

[j]

Supposedly, salt or club soda is supposed to be used to treat it. Maybe put the whole thing in a bowl of salty club soda.

 

[fatherseanfan]

club soda - no salt! if that doesnt work try some white wine.

 

[dah328]

I always start soaking the shirt in water as soon as possible. I usually let it soak for 36 hours or so (it's amazing how much that helps). I then pour boiling water on the stain and follow that with hand-washing using detergent and whatever specialty cleaners I have on hand and then I repeat the entire process as needed. I've never failed to completely remove a red wine stain, yet. One thing -- if you iron or dry the shirt before the stain is completely gone, the sugar in the wine will caramelize and permanently stain your shirt so make sure it's gone before you do that.

Or just pay your shirt guy another $3 and buy a new shirt.

dan

 

[VMan]

This has worked for me before, it's worth a shot. The stain might be too set in by now, but I've gotten wine stains out of shirts and sweaters for friends before, after parties that got a bit wild.

Step 1: Soak shirt in a solution made from one gallon hot water and one cup of vinegar. Let the shirt soak for 30 mins to 2 hours.

Step 2: Rinse shirts, and squeeze out excess water. Empty bucket and rinse. In a cup, prepare a concentrated Oxy-Clean solution. Make sure to use the Oxy-Clean granules that come in the tub. Make the solution about 10 parts HOT water to one part O-C. Usually this amounts to two scoops of O-C (using the provided scoop) per 4-6 ounces of water. You want this to be very concentrated.

Step 3: Apply the strong solution generously to the stained areas. Place the shirts in a bucket (so that the solution doesn't flow away, or dry) with the stained areas towards the bottom of the bucket so they stay nice and covered in the solution. Allow to soak overnight. It can also help to use an old toothbrush and scrub the stained areas every hour or so, if you've got the time.

Step 4: In the morning, remove the shirts from bucket. Fill the bucket with a gallon of hot water, and two scoops of the Oxy-Clean (basically, follow the recipe on the package for a general cleaning solution) and mix well. Place the shirts in the bucket, and soak for 2-24 hours. This just helps to remove any trace of stain. You might want to stir the shirts around with your hands after you put them in the bucket with the weaker solution just to remove some of the stronger solution that is still on the shirts.

Step 5: Remove, and wash/rinse in the regular cycle on your washing machine.

Note: I find that this normally removes sweat/dirt stains from the armpit, neck, and cuff with ease. For really strong stains, you might have to repeat the process. However, with this, I've been able to remove some major sweat stains that have been set into shirts for years.

 

[Stu]

Originally Posted by VersaceMan

This has worked for me before, it's worth a shot. The stain might be too set in by now, but I've gotten wine stains out of shirts and sweaters for friends before, after parties that got a bit wild.

Step 1: Soak shirt in a solution made from one gallon hot water and one cup of vinegar. Let the shirt soak for 30 mins to 2 hours.

Step 2: Rinse shirts, and squeeze out excess water. Empty bucket and rinse. In a cup, prepare a concentrated Oxy-Clean solution. Make sure to use the Oxy-Clean granules that come in the tub. Make the solution about 10 parts HOT water to one part O-C. Usually this amounts to two scoops of O-C (using the provided scoop) per 4-6 ounces of water. You want this to be very concentrated.

Step 3: Apply the strong solution generously to the stained areas. Place the shirts in a bucket (so that the solution doesn't flow away, or dry) with the stained areas towards the bottom of the bucket so they stay nice and covered in the solution. Allow to soak overnight. It can also help to use an old toothbrush and scrub the stained areas every hour or so, if you've got the time.

Step 4: In the morning, remove the shirts from bucket. Fill the bucket with a gallon of hot water, and two scoops of the Oxy-Clean (basically, follow the recipe on the package for a general cleaning solution) and mix well. Place the shirts in the bucket, and soak for 2-24 hours. This just helps to remove any trace of stain. You might want to stir the shirts around with your hands after you put them in the bucket with the weaker solution just to remove some of the stronger solution that is still on the shirts.

Step 5: Remove, and wash/rinse in the regular cycle on your washing machine.

Note: I find that this normally removes sweat/dirt stains from the armpit, neck, and cuff with ease. For really strong stains, you might have to repeat the process. However, with this, I've been able to remove some major sweat stains that have been set into shirts for years.


A great method, but if I cannot find Oxy Clean in San Juan, I seriously doubt he can find it in Ho Chi Minn City. After reading this post a few years ago, I had my mother send me several tubs of the stuff.

 

[VMan]

Originally Posted by Stu

A great method, but if I cannot find Oxy Clean in San Juan, I seriously doubt he can find it in Ho Chi Minn City. After reading this post a few years ago, I had my mother send me several tubs of the stuff.

Perhaps it is sold under different brand names?

I'm not sure what exactly the stuff/chemical/compound is, but a similar product is added to carpet cleaning machines to help lift stains. With some luck perhaps Matt could find it in VN.

 

[designprofessor]

try rubbing alchohol on a cotton ball? seems to work on alot of stuff

 

[Manton]

Wet a fingernail brush and then rub it onto bar soap. Dampen the stain and then use the brush to scrub the stain. Let the shirt hang for a while (the longer the better) before rinsing with hot water. If the stain still looks dark, scrub again, gently. Repeat wait and rinse. Then machine wash in warm water, gentle cycle. Hang to dry. Stain should be gone. If not, try again.

NOTE: It is MUCH better to repeat the first steps than it is to repeat the whole process after machine washing.

 

[Sator]

As someone with some science background I can tell you that any product that has a name like "OxyClean" will probably have sodium percarbonate (or something very similar) in it. Here in Australia we have something call Napisan OxyAction and this is what it contains. There are other products on the supermarket shelf with similar names and they all have the same active ingredient. Product names may differ but it is all the same industrial bucket chemistry.

At the end of the day these are all forms of bleach. Yes, bleach! Not necessary chlorine based bleach but still bleach. The 'Oxy-' is a reference to oxidation in chemistry. Free radicals are released by chlorine based bleaches or hydrogen peroxide. Oxygen free radicals result in a bleaching effect.

I use any cleaning product that mentions Oxy- and has some sort of oxygen release exclusively on white clothes only. Look carefully at the fine print on your cleaning products as you might find to your surprise that a lot of stain removers contain these sort of things in them.

 

[Sator]

Originally Posted by Manton

Wet a fingernail brush and then rub it onto bar soap. Dampen the stain and then use the brush to scrub the stain. Let the shirt hang for a while (the longer the better) before rinsing with hot water. If the stain still looks dark, scrub again, gently. Repeat wait and rinse. Then machine wash in warm water, gentle cycle. Hang to dry. Stain should be gone. If not, try again.

NOTE: It is MUCH better to repeat the first steps than it is to repeat the whole process after machine washing.

Hurray! Welcome back Manton. I love your book!

 

[kcheng]

I was faced with this problem last month.. (someone) managed to spill half a bottle of red onto my Jantzen sea island white at around lunch time. I didn't get a chance to do anything with it until early evening, by which time I had kind of given up on the shirt.

However, Kiwi pre-machine stain remover mixed with water in a bucket managed to do the trick. Its a spray bottle, but i poured in about 3tbsps of it in a small bucket and soaked the shirt for about 2 hours... Then machine wash it.. All gone...