This is what happens when something is waiting for a week or more in the washing machine, in muggy summer weather -
Perhaps it will become a project - stain the entire cloth, then use it for art quilts - they're interesting marks, after all.
Moments after hanging it up to dry, sitting down to breakfast I noticed fresh juice stains on the fresh tablecloth - grr!
It's stretched over a bowl, ready for the
Boiling Water Treatment, which works a treat on fresh juice stains, and did on the tablecloth.
Perhaps the mold can be treated too - make a
paste of lemon juice and salt... the acid in the juice can break down the stain, but why the salt - in dyeing, it's used to increase penetration of the dye - perhaps here it helps the acid get into the fibres?
Oh goodness, you DO have a mess there! I was thinking bleach bleach and more bleach for the mold, but then you might lose the color. You're probably right about the reason for the salt in so many home remedies for stain removal.
ReplyDeletecould the use of salt be that it attracts moisture from the air, I think the word is hygroscopic, and so keeps the reaction going for longer.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, when I was a child salt and lemon juice on fabric laid in the sun to remove stains. I think, from what little chemistry I remember, that the acid and the UV release the chlorine from the NaCl (salt) and that performs somewhat like chlorine bleach but milder and gentler. Don't know if I am right. Don't even know if I remembered the molecular formula for salt right. lol,
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