I have a white cotton dress that got washed on a cold wash with a post-it note. The dress now has a yellow stain that isn’t responsive to Dr Beckmanns, hairspray, nail polish remover, isopropyl alcohol or Napisan napisan oxi action. how can I remove the stain? Thank you!
277611cookie-checkPost-it Note Stain on Dress
As Dr. Chemical mentioned any solvent with chloro in the name will work. One of the best is Tetrachhloroethylene, which was widely used as a dry cleaning solvent. This is hard to find on its own but is commonly sold as Brakleen here in the USA. Brakleen is an automotive brake and mechanical parts cleaning solvent which comes in a pressurized aerosol can. I have used this to remove a yellow sticky note stain from a cream coloured shirt, although it took nearly 2 x 19oz cans to get it out.
Press the stained fabric into an empty clean glass jar or ceramic cup, or pyrex beaker (250ml) as though you are trying to make a filter. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area and spray the Brakleen onto the stain until the level of solvent immerses the stain in the cup. Take a teaspoon and gently massage the stained fabric in the solvent. Let the stain sit in the solvent sit for 5 minutes. Carefully lift the stained fabric out of the cup and inspect the left over solvent for a colour change. The solvent should have taken on some of the colour from the stain, this will show if it is working to extract the stain. Repeat this process until the stain has gone or until it has lightened enough to be less noticeable.
Hope this helps bring back your dress!
Yikes. That’s pretty serious. Okay – try acetone. I reckon that’ll shift it. If that doesn’t move it there’s only one thing left – paint stripper. Go into Bunnings and look for a paint stripper that contains a chlorinated solvent. Look on the label. I think it’s dichloromethane. Any chemical name with “chloro” in it will work. That’s an even stronger solvent than acetone and should shift the yellow dye. And it won’t hurt the cotton