April 08, 2014

How to remove ink from clothing

  Anyone out there who uses fountain pens? (ME ME ME!!!) Well, if you also happen to be a klutz like I am, you've probably stained some article of clothing and have come here to find out how to get rid of it.
My stain happened when I left a pen uncapped on my desk and leaned my elbow on it, and because I had never stained anything with fountain pen ink before I kinda freaked out.  I quickly scoured the internet for how to get rid of the stain.  Here is a combination of methods that works extremely well.  And seeing as I stained a white shirt sleeve with dark blue ink and erased it completely, it works pretty darn well.

Things you will need:
  1. Stained clothing
  2. Hairspray
  3. Cotton balls or cotton pads
  4. Cardboard, paper towels, or more cotton
  5. Lukewarm water
  6. A bucket
  7. Clorox 2
  8. Tide
  9. Patience
Step 1:  Place cardboard, paper towels, or cotton underneath the layer of clothing which has been stained.  When we go to remove the stain itself, we don't want the stain to seep through into the next layer and make it even worse.
Step 2:  Spray the area with a fair amount of hairspray, and let it sit for a few moments to settle into the fabric and the stain.  The hairspray will work the same way it does on hair; it will stick to the ink on the surface of the clothing, and when we go to remove it, lots of the stain will come with it.
Step 3:  Wet some paper towels or cotton with water (lukewarm water is fine, but slightly warm water is also good).  Begin to dab at the stain.  Don't rub it.  Rubbing will generally only make the stain go further into the fibers of the fabric.  So when you dab try to lift the stain out, not across.  You will find that a lot of the ink comes out onto the paper towel/cotton, so you will have to use more paper towels or cotton.
Step 4:  Repeat steps 2 and 3 until it appears that adding more hairspray and dabbing it back out does not seem to be making any more progress.
Step 5:  Put your now less-stained clothing into the bucket (after removing the cardboard) and fill your bucket about half full with water (again, lukewarm or slightly warm).  Make sure your stain is submerged in the water, but near enough to the surface that you can still see it.  Add some Clorox 2 right over the stain, and try to rub some of it into the fabric gently.  Stir it up a just a bit in the bucket.  Now add a bit of Tide and again rub it gently into the stain and swish it around a little.
Step 6:  Leave the bucket with your clothing and water solution in it to sit somewhere safe for a couple of days.  No need to add anything more to the water, or change the water, just leave it alone and underwater for a while, and by the time you're ready to do your laundry the stain should be all gone!  I went back to check on mine after about 4 or 5 days and I could not find the stain at all.  It was gone!

Best of luck to you all, hope you found this to be helpful!

 

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