Lemon season is here and with one other ingredient spring sunshine here are couple of tips for cleaning up your students’ sewing projects. In addition we answer a reader’s question with a stain removal tip for delicate wool garments.
To remove unpicked, stitch hole marks and students’ thumb stains from sewing projects, simply rub the stains with a little pure lemon juice then, without washing, hang out to dry in the sunshine for an hour or until the marks have faded away. If necessary repeat the process until completely faded. Unless really grubby it should not be necessary to wash the fabric as lemon juice evaporates in sunshine.
PLEASE NOTE: For needle-point unpicked marks, be careful to keep the juice away from any completed stitches as it will fade the colours.
Especially good for totally unpicked pieces of embroidery as you can use the cloth again for new projects.
Reader’s Question
Don’t ask how, but I have lilac bubble bath all over the sleeve of my favourite cream-coloured winter wool jersey. What can I do to remove it without damaging the delicate wool-pile of the jersey.
Annabelle
Christchurch South
Hi Annabelle,
Pick a sunny clear day.
Put a teaspoon of lemon juice into a cup of warm water in a small bowl. Dip a piece of old white cloth into the bowl and wring out then dab the stain repeatedly dipping the cloth and wringing out until you have covered the entire stain with the mixture. Be patient and just dab as you do not want to raise the wool pile. Now hang out in the sunshine for a couple of hours and the stain should have gone. If the jersey is clean except for the now hopefully faded-away stain there is no need to wash as the lemon juice will have evaporated.
Other uses for using your lemon next week.
Happy times in the Garden.
The Kitchen Garden Gnome
