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Recipe 54 of 100 · The Country Cleans Mix Book

How to Get Red Wine and Coffee Out of a Tablecloth

Pour From a Foot Up

Wine still wet? Pour a heavy layer of salt on it, wait ten minutes and shake it off. Stretch the stained spot over the sink. On a fresh stain on cotton or linen, pour hot water through the back from about a foot up so it pushes the color out the front. Work in 1/2 cup white vinegar mixed with 1 tablespoon clear dish soap, wait fifteen minutes, flush again and wash. Already dried or washed? Cool water only, heat sets it for good.

Tomato, Coffee, and Wine on Fabric recipe card: 1 tbsp salt, for wet wine, 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1 tbsp clear dish soap, A kettle of hot water, tag permitting
What it fixesTannin and pigment stains, meaning red sauce, coffee, tea, red wine, and fruit juice.

You need

Mix it

  1. Combine the white vinegar and the dish soap in a bowl and stir gently.
  2. Keep the salt dry and to the side. It is only for wine while it is still wet.
  3. That is it. Tannin stains respond to acid, not to more soap.

Use it

  1. Wine only, and only if it is still wet: pour a heavy layer of salt over the puddle and let it draw for ten minutes, then shake it off.
  2. Turn the garment inside out and stretch the stained area over the sink.
  3. Fresh stains only, and only on cotton, linen or a poly blend the tag says can take heat. Pour hot water through the back of the stain from about a foot up so the pressure pushes the pigment out the front rather than deeper through the fabric. If the stain is already dry, or it has already been through a wash cycle, skip the hot water completely and use cool, because heat sets a dried tannin stain for good.
  4. Lay the item flat and work the vinegar and soap mix into the stain with the brush.
  5. Wait fifteen minutes, then flush through the back again, same temperature you used in step 3.
  6. Wash normally. On white cotton, drying in direct sun finishes off any last shadow.
Dale's noteThe height of the pour matters more than the temperature. Water falling from a foot up hits with real force and physically drives pigment back out the entry side. Pouring gently from an inch away does almost nothing. One correction on tomato and red sauce, since it gets lumped in with coffee and wine and it does not belong there. Tomato color is lycopene and it is oil soluble, so acid does almost nothing to it. Pretreat tomato with straight dish soap worked into the spot, wash it, then dry the item flat in direct sun. Sunlight is what finishes a lycopene stain, not vinegar.
Don'tPin or clamp the fabric over the sink instead of holding it, or wear a rubber glove on the hand underneath, because kettle water poured from a foot up splashes back. Do not use hot water on a stain that has already dried or already been through a wash, and never on wool, silk or anything labeled cold wash. Heat welds a set in tannin stain into the fiber and that is the end of the shirt. Also do not use this vinegar mix on acetate or triacetate garments, since acid weakens those fibers and you will get thin spots or small holes right where you scrubbed.
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