Washing nightmare - white clothes

[pommie]

just wondered if anyone had any good tips on how to get a white pair of jeans clean. My daughter wore them to a wedding and they are now covered in grass stains/mud stains and seem to be ruined. I have used the stain devils on them and soaked them in washing powder but no luck yet

[Pickle]

Sunshine! Although you may need to move abroad to find it...

But seriously, I hang my whites out on really sunny days and it works really well, baby's cloth nappies included.

[Convex]

Have you tried googling? There are all sorts of websites out there dedicated to getting specific standout of specific material.

Eg baking soda to get grease stains off polyester pram hood.... Genius!

[espelli]

Apparently rubbing grass stains with the cut surface of a white onion works! I haven't tried it myself but it might be worth a go!

[Norfolkvillas]

I second the sunshine advice - I first read about it on here, and never fail to be totally gobsmacked when it works so amazingly well, even on days that aren't even that bright. It's magic! Haven't tried it with grass stains though...

[minder]

Rubbing a bit of washing up liquid into the stain before putting into machine can sometimes do the trick.

Would agree about hanging out clothes in the sunlight as stains do disappear after hanging out on the washing line in hot sunlight (got that from an elderly neighbour).

[pommie]

thanks for the advice, will try the sunshine tip (when we get some) but i have a feeling the mud stains to the bottom of the trousers will take more than that to get rid of them

[melbourne groover]

Napisan - soak overnight and then wash, give the stains a good scrub after they have soaked.

Also stain devils very good. Then hang out in the sunshine!

[pommie]

will try napisan. Have tried stain devils and they haven't worked. The mud/dirt marks are quite severe on the ankles of the trousers

[Saila]

Soak in very dilute bleach. If it's just a one-off it should be too tough on a pair of jeans. And will definitely work! If it means you'll wear them again instead of chucking them away, it'll be worth it

[Saffron]

Dye them indigo?

[Saffron]

Weirdly, I've had sunlight worsen stains on some white/light clothing. Does anyone know why that happened? I thought maybe the sunlight oxidised something in the stain, effectively causing the stain to set. It hasn't happened enough times to draw any conclusion about what might have been the cause.

[dulwichgirl2]

Saffron, yes presumably oxidation.

I am giving up my short low temp eco friendly washes. They just don't get things clean enough.

I recently got terrible grass and mud out of a lovely white dress by soaking in Vanish overnight, making a little paste, machine washing and then repeating as only half came out the first time.

[Saffron]

A lot of the stain remover formulas say they work in one application, but really I've found many stains need re-treating in practice.

In theory, oxygenated bleaches should help with oxidised stains, but in practice I've found that they can also remove colour from children's clothing. As it turns out, a lot of children's clothing is dyed with vegetable-based dyes. So you can remove the stain, but also damage the colour content of the fabric! Ah, we live and learn, eh?

I have a hypothesis that rust remover should help remove banana stains (oxidised potassium stain?), but I've never had a bottle of rust remover around when I needed to test this.

Sometimes soaking the stained area in fabric conditioner, washing thoroughly with liquid dish soap, and completely rinsing the fabric before applying stain remover helps. This 2-step process helps remove oily residues which prevent stain remover penetrating the stain.

[sjf1]

Biotex powder or zamo thin bleach rather than the thick sort you tip down the toilet

[pommie]

tried biotex and stain devils but unfortunately after doing all this and washing them, the stains still appear!