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Ideas for Renewing a Stained T-Shirt

January 23, 2013 By 7 Comments

Dear Home-Ec 101,

I have a grey t-shirt that has significant memories and it has a grease blotch or something in it. Not sure, honestly. I’ve tried.everything to remove it and give up. The stain is above the belly button location. So an odd place. However, I wondered how I might make a bleach design that would cover the lower half of the shirt.
Any ideas?

Signed,
Crafty in Cranston

Heather says:

Thank you for understanding that sometimes stains are permanent. As frustrating as that can be, sometimes there is no way to remove it.

I’m not exactly the crafty type, but I think you can do something called a mask and spray the shirt with a 50 / 50 bleach mixture to make some pretty cool upcycled shirts.

A quick search on Google gave me this easy project that just requires freezer paper, an iron, bleach, water, and a spray bottle. (And an artistic hand, you won’t find that here, hopefully you can print out a template or something to trace, this girl can barely draw a stick figure.)

I looked it up on Pinterest, because seriously, where else do you go for crafty and DIY ideas?

My advice would be to make sure the stain lies in an area where the color is transitioning so it’s less obvious, like in the example below. The mottling would do more to hide a stain than if you removed all the color and the stain remained.

We all know that ombre is in.

A slightly more in-depth can be found on Saved By Love Creations -again via a Pinterest search. (I did not take this photo, it belongs  to Johnnie, go check out her site)

 

Bleached Tee by Johnnie

Do not Pin this photo, please. Click the image and go to the craft tutorial itself, so they get the credit.

 

And of course, you know I was attracted to this one.

Who wouldn’t want a bleached t-shirt with a Tardis? I mean, really, who?

Photo Credit Emily from Emmy-Lou.com:

Tardis Bleach Design

Do not pin this image. Click the image and go to the craft itself so they get credit :)

I’m pretty sure I can hear Jenn Fowler and Melanie Nelson *squeeing* from here and neither of them are the type to squee.

Good luck with your stained shirt. I hope this idea works out. If not, you could always save it and other t-shirts with memories to turn into a quilt or wall-hanging.

Submit your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

Filed Under: Wash It Tagged With: ,

How to Remove Melted Microfiber from a Smooth Top Stove

November 28, 2012 By 1 Comment

Dear Home Ec 101,

I burned a microfiber rag on my flat top range as I thought it was cool and was wiping it off. The regular ceramic stove top cleaners are not taking it off. How can I remove the melted microfiber from my stove?

Signed,
Stuck in Sturbridge

Heather says:

Cleaning melted anything off of a smooth top range is kind of a pain in the rear. First, as you’ve noticed, microfiber cloth isn’t like your standard cotton, which would have simply scorched or burnt. Microfiber is a generic term for any fiber less than one denier per filament -the tiny strands that are twisted and woven together to eventually create a cloth -sometimes, like in the case of microfiber, that requires a whole heck of a lot of twisting and weaving.

A denier is really tiny, about ten micrometers. These really tiny filaments give microfiber cloths their excellent cleaning properties, but since they are generally made from polyesters, they have the unfortunate tendency to melt on hot surfaces. Razor Scraper

You take the good with the bad and then to clean up the bad, you find a razor scraper.

Don’t worry, these razor scrapers are super cheap and you can find them at any big box store -Walmart, Target or hardware store, like ACE or Lowes -these are simply examples, not a recommendation of where to spend your money.  If you do not currently live with your parents and do not already own a razor scraper, toss one in your Amazon shopping cart.

Why?

Because at some point, you’re going to need this stupidly, handy tool for something, whether it’s for removing melted microfiber, plastic bags, or sugar from your smooth top stove, getting burnt-on grime off of the interior of your oven, or even removing paint from glass, these suckers are handy and at just over two bucks a pop, there is no reason not to have one in your kitchen and one in the garage / workshop area. Also at that price point, it’s worth having in there, if you’re THIS close to free shipping, but not quite.

To use the razor scraper on your smooth top range, hold the scraper at about a 45° angle to the stove and push forward, not side- to-side, never side-to-side, that would be how you scratch your smooth top range.

Got it?

Always scrape back and forth, not sideways and do it at an angle. Picture the razor blade sliding between the plastic and the surface of your stove, prying off the stuck on bits. (Because that’s what it’s doing and why it’s best to use a very sharp blade. Please use common sense and caution when using this tool and hide it from the minions, if you have those lurking about.)

Questions?

Submit your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

Filed Under: Clean It Tagged With: , ,

How to Safely Remove Nail Polish from Piano Keys

October 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

Dear Home Ec 101,

Love your site! It struck me that with your knowledge of chemistry, young kids, and housekeeping, you were my best shot at figuring out how to remove lovely nail polish from nearly every key of our piano. Any ideas?

The keys are not ivory (that I can tell, I don’t know what they are) but my mother did learn to play on this piano in the 40′s. I want to cry every time I look at the bright green and bright blue (ugh!!!!!) B’s and swirly-Q’s on these keys, courtesy of my four year old. The only time I’ve really gotten courage to work on removal, I tried a q-tip with nail polish remover, but it strikes me that there are likely several types of remover so maybe I grabbed the wrong one. Help me remove the nail polish which is pretty thick on there, but not deface the keys, if at all possible?!

Thanks for all of your information. Love the way you deliver it!

Signed,
Tickling the Ivories

Heather says:

This is a tricky one, removing nail polish from piano keys is not that simple, especially because piano keys that old are going to have a lot of nicks and probably aren’t exactly white any more. Anything you do to remove the nailpolish may just leave a funny clean spot.

However here are three tactics to try:

Grab a bottle of clear nail polish and a rag. Apply the clear nail polish to the annoying nail polish and give it a moment. Then use the rag and wipe the nail polish, with a little elbow grease off of the key. This tactic may take a while, so perhaps do a few keys a day.

Alternately get plain white toothpaste. Notice I said white and not WHITENING toothpaste. You want the cheap, apply the paste and gently scrub / polish the keys with a rag, then wipe off with a rag dipped in milk. The milk will hopefully neutralize any chemical reactions that could damage the surface of the keys. After wiping with the milk, I’d use a rag dampened with plain water to hopefully prevent any funky sour milk smells.

You know how nail polish wears off of your finger nails, no matter how many clear coats you use? Well, time and use will do the same for the nail polish on the keys. Additionally, you can try speeding up that process by scraping with a nylon scraper (like the Pampered Chef stoneware kind) or the edge of a credit or gift card.

Good luck and remember in 10 or 15 years you’ll be mortifying her with the whole, “Remember when you painted the keys on my grandmother’s piano?”

Parenting. Oy.

Send your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com

Filed Under: Fix It Tagged With: , ,

Mattress Stains, When to Worry and When to Say to Heck with It

June 11, 2012 By 20 Comments

Dear Home Ec 101,

I’ve got a problem that I haven’t seen addressed on the blog, or anywhere else for that matter.  We have an older twin-size, leather sofa-bed; which lived happily in our library in our home for several years, did an eight-year stint as extra seating at my office, and now has been moved to its permanent home in the boys’ bedroom of our new cabin.  Taking it to the cabin was a chore; and as we’re getting older, we thought it would be a good idea to take the mattress-bed contraption out of the leather frame and take it upstairs in two trips.  No problem there, we got it apart.  Unfortunately, for the first time in probably decades, we unfolded the hide-a-bed part, only to discover rust stains on the top of the mattress!  Perhaps really cat pee stains from when it was at home?  Maybe coffee spilled behind the cushion at the office?  No clue.  I figure we can sand and paint the rusted metal hide-a-bed frame with no problem, but how do I possibly get the rust stains out of the mattress?

Any guidance would be most welcome.

Signed,

Secret Stains

Heather says:

We are going to look at these mattress stains from a couple of different perspectives.

Let’s pretend you do have a cat urine issue on your mattress.  Without a doubt you will know if you have cat pee on your mattress all it will take is a quick sniff test, not even up close and personal to your mattress, to determine if urine was anywhere near your couch. Cats are quite notorious for the amount of funk (ammonia) contained in their urine. There is simply no way a sniff test will leave you confused about the source of the stain.

Get yourself some Kids’n'Pets or other enzymatic cleaner and if you don’t own a carpet / or upholstery steam cleaner, rent one.  Also find a box fan or make sure there is lots of air flow in the room where the mattress cleaning will occur. You absolutely do not want to trade your stain issue for a mildew / mold problem. Only steam clean one side of the mattress at a time and make sure the first side is COMPLETELY -got it?- dry before doing the other.

The enzymatic cleaner should take care of any pet urine issues in your mattress.

Now here’s where I believe I’m probably going to give an unpopular answer.

If the stains were caused by rust. . . Do the stains on your mattress really matter at all?

Rust stains are harmless. Sure they aren’t attractive, but they aren’t doing anything to the mattress other than sitting there and being ugly. What’s the crime in ugly, I ask? This is a hide-a-bed, the mattress isn’t ever going to serve as a conversation piece in your home, right?

On another note, it’s not even like it’s an extremely comfortable mattress. (I’m sure someone, somewhere may make a comfortable hide-a-bed mattress, but I have never encountered one.)

If you want to ensure guests never see the stains, grab yourself an allergen mattress barrier. Zipper that around the mattress and voila! No one sees the rust stains unless they are creepy weird and unzip the barrier and really, who are you inviting into your home that would do that?

For what it’s worth, I do think you are on the right track to fix up the source of the rust stains, I just don’t think the rust stains themselves matter that much.

Good luck!

Send your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

Related post: Mattress Cleaning and Other Indoor Sports

Filed Under: Clean It, Fix It Tagged With: , , , ,

How to Use Acetone to Remove Grease Stains

January 13, 2012 By 7 Comments

Dear Home-Ec 101,

I read in your book about using acetone to remove grease or oil stains from clothes, but it just mentions it in a list of items one might use. Can you please elaborate on this? I am forever ruining knit shirts with food stains, as is my son (although, in his case he can still wear them. I think teaching with a big oil spot on my blouse looks pretty hideous.) Oftentimes I don’t realize it until after I’ve washed and dried them, so the cornstarch idea seems irrelevant at that point. Would you put acetone right on the fabric or is there a special way to do this?

Signed,
Greasy in Great Lakes

Heather says:

Remember the Home-Ec 101 Code of Stain Removal – Always test in an inconspicuous area.

Acetone is a solvent and is excellent for getting out grease stains on some colorfast fabrics. However you must never use acetone on modacrylic, acetate or triacetate. Acetone will dissolve these materials, sure you won’t have a stain, but you won’t have much of a garment left, either.  Use caution when using acetone on silk, wool, and other natural hair fibers as these can be damaged by the solvent.

Please keep in mind that acetone is flammable. I know we all need a little more romance in our lives, but save the candle-lit stain removal session for another time. Acetone can also be an irritant, so keep it out of your eyes and don’t stand around huffing the fumes.

If the stain is just oil, you may be able to remove the stain with acetone. Unlike protein stains whose structure changes after heating, oily stains can occasionally be removed by bringing them into solution and convincing that solution to take a hike. How do we move that grease stain along?

It’s easy.

Grab an absorbent rag, acetone, and your stained garment. Now find a well-ventilated area. Fold your rag to create a thick pad and place it on your work surface. Turn your garment inside out* and place the stained area over the absorbent pad. Drizzle the acetone over the stained area. You may need to do this several times as the oil has worked itself deep into the fibers. You may not be able to remove all of the oil stain, but you should notice an improvement.

Follow up your efforts with normal laundering.

Where do you find acetone to use for stain removal?

Acetone is often sold as nail polish remover and can be found in the health and beauty aisle of most stores, just be sure you get straight up, plain acetone. you don’t want to get anything with conditioners or other ingredients that could leave a new stain. Need to know what you’re looking for? Here’s an example of acetone nail polish remover from Amazon.

We’re just trying to solve our problem, not create new ones.

*Unless of course you were wearing the shirt inside-out, then by all means turn it right side out. The key is to work from the reverse side of where the staining occurred.

Send your household questions to helpme@home-ec101.com. 

Filed Under: Wash It Tagged With: ,
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