I have a black rugby-styled shirt with a white collar. Since it’s black, I usually wash it with the darks. I took it out to wear it the other day and noticed the collar was, well, not as white as it could be. I don’t want to say it was dingy, because it wasn’t yellowish it just, well, looked like a white collar that had been washed with the darks one too many times. Is there any way to save the collar without making the rest of shirt look faded? Is this something my dry cleaner can do?
Normally I’d just replace the shirt but Banana Republic doesn’t sell them anymore
If, by some miracle of god, I do find another shirt just like it, how do I care for it? Should I just send it to the dry cleaners?
I was going to suggest using a diluted bleach solution and maybe a toothbrush or something to apply to the collar without touching the rest of the shirt.
Do NOT do what my wife did to one of my rugby shirts once. She splashed a little bleach into the washing machine to try to whiten up the collar. But apparently the bleach was not adequately dispersed before she threw the shirt in. It came out all blotchy looking and basically ruined the shirt. :smack:
Use a stain stick on the collar, something like Shout. Make sure you rub it in good and let it sit for awhile. Since it’s a stick, you won’t have to worry about any of it dripping onto the black part of the shirt.
Wash the shirt using Cheer with Colorguard detergent. It helps prevent dye from leaching and depositing itself in places you don’t want it to. That should help extend the life of the shirt.
Thanks much for the ideas. I think I’m going to try the stain stick. The bleach stick, well, it scares me a little. I have no clue what laundry bluing is, either.
The bleach stick is probably OK, it’s not chlorine bleach (based on the link provided). This is probably hydrogen peroxide, similar to Clorox 2. I strongly discourage you from doing anything at all with chlorine bleach. It could blotching on the shirt the next time you wash it in a machine unless you rinse the collar out extremely well. Also high risk if you splash any around. You could follow Shoeless’s advice if you use Clorox 2 instead of a chlorine bleach.
Laundry bluing is a blue dye that counteracts the effect of yellowing on white fabrics. It’s not a brightener per se, it just works agains the yellow. Yellowing is not your problem, though, so it might make matters worse. (Ladies with gray hair sometimes get yellowing in the hair, and use laundry bluing to adjust it. Hence the stereotypical blue-haired lady.)
The Shout advice is good and won’t hurt anything if it doesn’t work. It probably won’t if what the collar is picking up is dye from the shirt or other clothes.
My wife the drycleaner says that if it is just dinge, a dry cleaning will likely give you good results. If it is dye transfer, that could prove more dificult.
