Red wine stains

Bother! I was at a great birthday party tonight – or at least it was great until a drunk guy jostled my arm and spilled red wine on my Very Favorite White Shirt. The one that is the only shirt that goes with my great purple skirt, the one that I can wear to work and to the theatre, the one that fits perfectly and has excellent darts that makes my waist look tiny and my boobs look amazing.

I spent about three hours with a giant red drip down my front (twenty minutes at the party making my excuses plus two and a half hours on Night Buses). When I got home, I immediately wet it and sprinkled some salt on it, then checked the Internet, which told me to soak the stain in white wine for a few hours to dislodge it. I am now doing so. I plan to leave it overnight and then wash it with detergent in the morning, but I figured if there were something better I could be doing, the Dope would know. How do you get rid of red wine stains slightly after the fact? It is – as I have said – my VERY FAVORITE WHITE SHIRT.

VERY FAVORITE.

WHITE.

SHIRT.

I’m gonna have to point you in the direction of the nearest dry cleaner.

They’ve managed to get my white shirts clean after serious red wine spills.
(and I’m gonna have to request a pic, just so I can be certain that your boobs are amazing in that shirt :wink: )

IF the fabric will take it, stretch the fabric taut and pour boiling water through it.

I soaked it overnight in the white wine then washed it with loads of detergent, and the stains have almost disappeared! They’re still noticeable, though, so I’m soaking them for a bit more in extremely diluted white spirit. After that, it’s to the dry-cleaner. And if that doesn’t work, tears.

What about bleach? That kills just about everything, but might damage the shirt itself.

I thought this was going to be about birthmarks for some reason.

Also, color me skeptical on the boobs looking amazing part. This being the SDMB, I’m afraid I must demand a cite: pics are in order, naturally.

Ahh I just spilled soy sauce on my favorite white shirt. Good luck.

You haven’t said what fabric the shirt is made of. If it’s a natural fibre, powdered nappy soaker will get rid of almost everything. I used to sell old linens and sometimes I would use a pre-wash type spray on heavy stains before soaking. I had a huge array of specific spot cleaners too - ink, paint etc. To be honest though, red wine and soy stains are pretty easy to shift with simple washing. Some inks, nailpolish and of all things, old milk stains, would give me the most challenges.

Red wine on a white shirt? I second bleach if possible (if it’s a relatively small spot, those bleach pens work wonders). But a good scrub with some spot stain remover and an old toothbrush, followed by a good laundering with Tide usually does the same thing for my shirts. One of my favorite bed sheets has survived coffee drips and wine spills several times over with only the soak ‘n’ scrub method.

The rest of one of those wine spills, however, landed all over one of my tatami mats and I’m pretty sure I’ll be stuck with that stain until the end of time (or until I buy a new mat).

Try cat puke cleaner. I think it has some kind of stain eating enzyme in it. It works really well on the red dye that’s in cat food (and consequently, cat puke).

An heavy dose of Oxi Action soaked for seven hours finished it off. Hah! I can’t even tell where the stain was any more! I was so convinced I was going to lose that shirt. :smiley: Happy ending for all! Although it still smells like the white wine I soaked it in overnight. I guess I’ll have to settle for people assuming I’m an alcoholic until it washes out.

WormTheRed and Koxinga, I would appreciate it if you would not say things like that to me again (read post 70 on of this thread if you’re confused).

I see you’ve already solved your problem, but for future refernce, Wine Awayis pretty awesome stuff. Works really well on tablecloths.

Would it be alright if they just came out and said, “SHOW ME PICS OF UR BOOBIEZ!!1!!”?

Also, I recommend you stop drinking red wine while wearing white. :smiley:

Sorry dear, didn’t mean to give you the vapours.

And please don’t patronize me when I ask you to stop being sexist.

I suspect this is the real solution! :smiley:

You might find that you’d get fewer internet horndogs asking for cites if you didn’t talk about how great your boobies look.

The boobie mention was incidental, and I don’t think I should have to pretend I am a sexless, shapeless creature in order to avoid boring lecherous responses.

It’s not even that it’s sexist, it’s that it’s predictable and lazy. What, nobody puts effort into their objectification these days?

Sorry. I apologize for my lame joke, it was totally uncalled for and unneccessary (and just plain bad taste).

Thanks. :slight_smile: I know it’s a so-called tradition, but it bothers me, so I felt I should speak up. And your post actually had some advice in, so not all was lost! :smiley:

Duly noted. I won’t do it again… and yeah, I actually managed to give some housekeeping advice. I’m quite impressed by myself :slight_smile: