Dry Red Wine Stain Removal?

[BookJumper]

My sister says to handwash the item with cold water and bleach but it's a cream shirt with black polka dots so I'm terrified bleach will ruin the pattern... help? I only have 5 shirts in the world so I'm not in the financial position to throw it away!

[sirinrob]

You might try Wine Away, it seems to have a track record for removing this.one of the worst stains.

[BookJumper]

Just researched it - a bottle of Wine Away would cost me nearly as much as buying the shirt again...! I'm not really a wine drinker you see (I only had a glass last night because a friend took me to a theatre press night and the free drink voucher was for wine) so it wouldn't really be an investment; I was hoping for something more along the lines of a household remedy...?

[pickle]

You could try Laundry Bleach Ecover does a very good one and its not a bleach that removes colour if you know what I mean, because its ecological it may take more than one go but i know it removed a grease stain which is harder.

[pipread]

I seem to recall reading that to treat a red wine stain you should use white wine, soak it then rinse I think. Hope you sort it.

[Chrissy]

I seem to recall reading that to treat a red wine stain you should use white wine, soak it then rinse I think. Hope you sort it.

I think it's this or soda water that should do it. It's pretty much a case of keep treating the area, with these liquids, and gritty soap powder etc etc.

 

The one thing I would say for sure is keep it away from hot water initially, as this might 'set' the stain. Tepid should do.

[Raven]

Soak the whole shirt in a bottle of cheap red and be brazen!

[BookJumper]

It's one of the very few shirts I have to wear for job interviews so I think I'll pass on your suggestion, Raven...!

[Mac]

My ex-wife and I once threw a party at my mother's house in their absence (shhh, don't tell her!). We were about 28 or 29 - I forget. My best friend, Kirree, managed to spill an enormous glass of red wine over a cream coloured foot stool whilst another friend of mine, Nick, was holding me upside down by the ankles as I grabbed his as he jumped up and down. My ex had read that white wine solves this issue, so went on to empty an entire bottle over the stain. Then Kirree said that salt did the trick, so found a box of it and emptied that all over it too. Suffice to say that, in the morning, the stain had gone!

 

It left an interesting paste, though, that took ages to get rid of...

[Freewheeling Andy]

Salt is the old-wives-tale solution, certainly for carpet stains, and it works pretty well. Although it won't get it all out. And, as Mac says, it leaves lots of salt - easier to wash off a shirt than a carpet or footstool.

 

But yes, moisten the shirt, then put a pile of salt on it. It won't work on a dry stain, because the wine has to leach in to the salt I think.

[Maureen]

I managed to get a number of red wine stains off my winter white pair of trousers with Vanish a few weeks ago.....