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Post by anonymoose on Jun 20, 2010 1:07:48 GMT -5
Hey all,
So, being a big girl makes buying a bathing suit an almost traumatic experience. Between the price per square inch of material and the internal dialogue going on during the buying process, I try not to repeat it any more frequently than necessary.
Last summer I got a nice one, and never had the chance to wear it. I thought - "Hey Moose, you're doing laundry ANYWAY, why not wash the dust out of it so it's ready if the chance arises?".
Unfortunately, some schmuck left a piece of sticky yellow candy in the dryer at the laundromat. Then, THIS schmuck didn't check the dryer before USING it. Now there's sticky yellow candy melted to my swimsuit bottom, and I have no idea how to salvage this mess. Fortunately, since all the candy is stuck to the *** of my swimskirt, the rest of my clothes avoided damage.
Instinct said to go for ice like you'd do with gum, but...no freezer = no ice.
Any suggestions?
Edited to add: I'm not talking a piece of yellow lollipop here...more like, oh...entire pack of melted Now & Later's or something.
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Post by amberwind on Jun 20, 2010 1:25:24 GMT -5
I don't know if this will work for what you're talking about, but it definitely works for gum.
Scrape as much of the candy off as you can using a spoon or paring knife. Heat up some white vinegar to just shy of boiling. Dip a rag into the vinegar. Lay your bathing suit out on a flat, hard surface like a counter and hold it down tight. Rub the vinegar rag vigorously over the candy - the dye should leach out of the candy, and then the candy will roll up into little bits you can pick off. Since it's white vinegar, there shouldn't be any stain leftover.
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Post by lilith on Jun 20, 2010 3:24:16 GMT -5
I would soak it in water until it dissolves. All candy is just sugar and eventually dissolves.
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Post by eagle on Jun 20, 2010 8:00:46 GMT -5
The candy itself should come off fairly easily. But it's the stain you don't want, I am sure. I have successfully got dark chocolate out of cotton knit fabric with an Oxiclean soak. It took a week. Red lipstick comes out with Oxiclean, too, and it takes less time. Red permanent makder (Sharpie) didn't come out completely, but is now a very faint stain in a poly blend top of my granddaughter's after a week of alternately scrubbing with a brush & soaking in Oxiclean.
So I'd suggest the Oxiclean. Use a fingernail brush to scrub into the stained area if the fabric can handle it. If not, then make a thick paste of the Oxiclean & apply to the yellow stain with your fingers. Let sit for while, then soak in warm water. Check it periodically to evaluate stain removal progress. Hopefully you have a week or so until your next swim party, so give this a try. I think you'll be pleased with the results.
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Post by fluffernut - now Jannie on Jun 20, 2010 9:34:54 GMT -5
I've heard of using peanut butter to get out gum in hair. My younger DD used to love chewing gun, sometimes fell asleep with gum in mouth-it ended up in her hair. The PB treatment does work. Try it on the gum in your bathing suit. If it doesn't work, the PB is washable. Good luck!
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Post by DJ on Jun 20, 2010 13:54:44 GMT -5
hey eagle, in my experience alcohol helps take out ink including sharpie markings... for what it's worth... for the swim suit i'd do like lil said and soak in water til the candy disolves... normally hot water 'cause it'd be quicker but for me it seems to set the stains more so i'd try cold... then see what kind of stain is left.. chocolates seam oily to me.. now and later kind of candies tend to leave dye stains on stuff.... and kind of go from there.. oxyclean is totally awesome for me but i find it works way way better with hothot water so sometimes it's not my fav for first attack on stains.
not that i frequently stain my clothing and have a line of attack for it or anything. no sirree. not me.
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Post by eagle on Jun 20, 2010 14:30:37 GMT -5
DJ, thanks. I may try that sometime in the future. I did a search first & used what I could find here at my son's house to treat it based on the recommendations I found for permanent markers. Nail polish remover was high on the list & I tried that, too, but all I had was individually wrapped pads & not an entire bottle, which I would probably have taken. Nothing else in the house actually was on the list except dish soap. But the amount of marker was excessive. Two of her classmates wrote their names on her shirt. It wasn't just one little tiny mark. It was two long names written in large print across the front and back of her mom's favorite shirt of her's in thick red permanent marker. Her dad & I were both shocked that she came home from her last day of school that way, but were glad her mom wasn't here to see it.
Do you use rubbing alcohol? Has it worked to get it out 100% There are still some faded markings visible & I'd really like to get it all the way out of the fabric.
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Post by DJ on Jun 20, 2010 14:56:45 GMT -5
with patience i removed black art ink from a white duvet cover totally using alcohol... yeah i use rubbing alcohol 'cause it is cheapest.. in a pinch at parties i have used drinking alcohol.. and it's the same idea as using hairspray to remove an ink stain... it's the alcohol in the hair spray that does the trick... i saw someone that removed every last bit of sharpie marker off of a totally sharpied couch using rubbing alcohol... i've also removed sharpie from lcd screens with it.. it's just one of those things i always keep in the laundry closet now  rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, oxyclean  the writing names on shirt thing is pretty common at the end of the school year :/ am sorry the kids didn't get the difference between an ok shirt to do it on and not ok. mom use to get me packs of undershirts for the end of camp and school and stuff, way cheaper |
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Post by eagle on Jun 20, 2010 17:17:32 GMT -5
Thanks, DJ. I'll get some rubbing alcohol next trip to the store & see if I can get that last bit of marker out. That would be so great!
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Post by eagle on Jun 21, 2010 20:12:32 GMT -5
DJ, that was nothing short of miraculous. What a treasure you are for sharing this tip with me. I cannot thank you enough.
The rubbing alcohol got the last of the marker stains out of the back of the blouse. I will be adding more to the front part later and am thrilled! THANK YOU!.
I may be using rubbing alcohol before Oxyclean from now on with stains of unknown origin, too, as they also come along periodically.
So, if it's this good on 'permanent' ink, I'd suggest trying it on candy stains, too.
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Post by Fivecat on Jun 21, 2010 21:24:09 GMT -5
i don't know about candy, but wd40 has worked for me with gum. son had a pair of pants that had gum on the seat. I first took ice and froze it, then scraped the gum off as much as possible. then what was inbedded in the fabric, i sprayed with wd40 and rubbed, threw that in the wash. then when wash was done, i took them out, sprayed them with spraynwash(now resolve) to get the wd40 stain out and rewashed them. couldn't tell there was ever gum in them. good as new. Fivecat
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Post by anonymoose on Jun 25, 2010 11:13:57 GMT -5
Thanks for all the good advice! I decided to start with what I have on hand - the water!  The suit bottom is soaking now, and whatever that doesn't get rid of, I'll attack with one of these other fine suggestions. TBH, I usually just pitch my items when these things happen...just couldn't do that with this! |
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Post by howardsgirlfriend on Jun 25, 2010 11:58:53 GMT -5
I slept through most of nursing-school chemistry but one thing I remember is that "like dissolves like." Sugar is stongly polar, and dissolves best in water--nothing else comes close. Substances such as paint thinner, alcohol, acetone, turpentine, hairspray, vinegar, ammonia, will all work to some degree on grease, ink, paint, etc. Water is ineffective, but also doesn't make it worse, so if you have a "mixed" stain, or a stain of uncertain origin, try water first. Heat can sometimes help, and sometimes hurt. If there's any protein in a stain, heat can denature it, "cooking" the protein and making it impossible to remove. Heat would help the water dissolve the sugar, but might "set" any coloring agents, so I would use tepid water first, then gradually hotter water as necessary. Another "wild card" here is the fabric. Swimsuits are almost always made from stretch symthetic fabrics. These fabrics can be broken down with some types of solvents--heck, the labels even recommend washing in cool water, because heat breaks the fabric down faster. If you want to try any solvents other than water, try them on an inconspicuous area of the suit first. For example, acetone might eat right through the fabric. The only other thing from chemistry that I remember is the process of osmosis, which is fortunate for my patients. . Wish I'd known I had a sleep disorder back then. |
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Post by yearning4order on Jun 26, 2010 0:17:42 GMT -5
I think I've mentioned this elsewhere, that I used to sell high end childrens' clothing on eBay years ago. My stain removal weapons:
minor and basically only on cotton--Oxiclean, wants a long soak
more serious--liquid Biz, let that stuff soak on a spot, even a day or two
extremely serious / grease stain--diet coke
Yup, you read that correctly. Diet coke was the big gun, got everything out and made me afraid to ever drink soda again. It's a potent degreaser, and I found it was very powerful on most stains (except something white).
I've also used citra-solv to remove dirty motor oil from a thin white cotton summer dress. Don't ask me why I felt the need to change the oil wearing that, but citra-solv made up for my poor judgement.
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Post by messymarie on Jun 27, 2010 22:38:13 GMT -5
If you have a can of air used for blowing dust out of a computer, turn it upside down and spray it on the candy. A freezing cold liquid will stream out, and freeze the candy instantly. It works much faster than actual ice.
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