A white shirt is everyday clothing for many people: office workers, schoolchildren, company representatives, etc. In all these cases, stationery is present. And no matter how carefully you use them, sooner or later an ink mark will appear on the fabric. Let’s consider how to wash a pen from a white shirt.
Normal washing cannot solve the problem. Under the influence of water, the pen paste line quickly blurs, turning a narrow line into a smoky blue cloud. Unlike the real inhabitants of the sky, it is not so easy to dispel these traces on a white cloth. But it is possible if you know some tricks.
It is necessary to immediately take into account that there are many manufacturers of pastes for pens today. And some of them try in every possible way to make production cheaper by using non-standard additives. Therefore, there is no universal method that allows you to wash off traces of any pen from the first time. Sometimes you have to use several recipes in turn to restore the whiteness of the shirt.
Put away the chlorine and iron!
Do not rush to use the familiar bleach with a thermonuclear smell – it may not remove the pen mark, but it will weaken the fabric fibers even the first time. It is absolutely impossible to use even a weak solution containing chlorine for fabrics with wool, silk or elastane in the composition – at the point of contact, the white shirt will acquire a new, clearly visible shade.
As long as you don’t go over the painted area with an iron, there is every chance to bring the shirt to a perfect condition in one way or another. Therefore, if some recipe did not help to wash, then just try another one, taking your time to dry and iron clothes.
How to withdraw
To make it easier to wash away the pen mark, sprinkle it immediately after it appears:
- Chalk or lime. If there is no piece at hand, a pinch is obtained in an inconspicuous place of the whitewashed wall.
- I’m sitting
- Talc
- Starch
If you’ve seen oxygen-impregnated wipes on sale, buy a pair. Sometimes it is enough to walk such a cloth over the stain so that it almost completely disappears. And even if a small trace remains, it will be easier to remove it than untreated. For the future, it will not hurt to stock up on such napkins and keep them close at hand (for example, in a drawer or in a pencil case with handles).
The easiest way is to buy a special stain remover in a bithimia store. But sometimes this solution is not convenient for one reason or another. Therefore, improvised means that can be found in the kitchen or in the first-aid kit come into play.
Handy tools that will help remove a pen from a white shirt:
- Soap from stains. Moisten it with warm water and treat the area well with soap, hold it under the foam for a quarter of an hour, then wash it off immediately. If necessary, repeat the process once more. Having achieved the desired result, the entire shirt should be soaked in the same foam for 30 minutes, and then rinsed and washed in the usual way.
- Dry bleach without chlorine. Dilute the powder according to the instructions in a small amount of water and treat the ink mark with the resulting liquid. After a quarter of an hour, wash the thing, and then immerse it in a warm solution for another 30 minutes. After soaking, the white shirt must be washed again.
- Soda and hydrogen peroxide. Mix the powder and liquids in a ratio of 1 to 1, apply more sizzling slurry to the ink mark and wait 15 minutes. If the bruise is removed, wash the contaminated area and treat it with a new solution again.
- Soda and vinegar. Use after obtaining from them a rattling mixture, which is usually done before adding to the dough. The product is left on the problem area for 10-15 minutes. The absence of a hiss does not mean that the liquid has stopped affecting the stain – the acid will continue to eat away at the pigment until it evaporates or is washed off the fabric.
- Pen marks are easily dissolved by fat. But you need to use not vegetable or cow oil, but a small portion of moisturizing cream. Keep the cosmetic product on the fabric for about 20 minutes, then wash the shirt and soak it for the same amount of time in water with the addition of a small portion of dishwashing gel. Then wash the white clothes again.
- If the white shirt is made of fabric with fibers of natural origin, try to wash off the stains using a varnish remover. The substance is applied with a cosmetic stick, after 10-20 minutes of exposure to the agent, the shirt is washed.
If, after all the manipulations, the stain from the pen has washed off, and the color of the white shirt has faded, then there are a number of methods to restore its linen. Read about bleaching shirts in this article .