Recipe 56 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book
How to Get Ink and Permanent Marker Out of Clothes
Ballpoint pen, marker or highlighter on washable clothes? Lay the stain face down on a thick pad of white paper towels and dab a mix of 1/2 cup 91% rubbing alcohol and 1/2 teaspoon dish soap on from the back. Tap, don't rub, and keep moving to a clean spot until no more color transfers. Wash cool, air dry. Not for acetate, rayon or printed shirts.
What it fixesBallpoint pen, permanent marker, and highlighter on washable clothing.
You need
- 1/2 cup 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol (120 ml)
- 1/2 teaspoon clear dish soap
- 1 small jar with a lid
- 1 thick stack of white paper towels or a folded white rag
- 1 cotton ball or white cloth
- 1 eyedropper, optional but useful
Mix it
- Pour the rubbing alcohol into the jar.
- Add the half teaspoon of dish soap.
- Cap and swirl gently until combined. Keep it capped between uses, alcohol evaporates out of an open container in a day.
Use it
- Build a thick pad of white paper towels on a hard flat surface and lay the garment stain-side DOWN on the pad. The ink has to have somewhere to go.
- From the back of the fabric, drip or dab the mixture onto the ink so it soaks through toward the pad.
- Tap straight down with the cotton ball. Do not rub, do not swirl. Tapping pushes ink into the pad, rubbing spreads it sideways.
- Every ten or fifteen taps, slide the garment to a clean dry section of the pad. This step is what actually removes the ink.
- Keep going until no more color transfers to the pad.
- Wash cool and air dry before checking your work.
Dale's noteInk is dye dissolved in a solvent, so you beat it with a solvent, not with more detergent. If you are out of rubbing alcohol, unscented alcohol- based hand sanitizer squeezed onto the back of the stain does the same job in a pinch.
Don'tDo not do this near a stove, heater, or lit cigarette, and crack a window. Do not use it on acetate, rayon, or anything with a printed graphic on it. Alcohol dissolves acetate and it lifts screen-printed and heat-transfer designs right off the shirt.
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