About a year ago, I bought a dozen flour sack dish towels. I pre-washed them and marked them with a water erasable pen so I'd be ready to go when I needed them.

Well, I see everyone has suggested everything except the obvious....dye the towels brown. hehehehe.... Seriously though have you thought about maybe a tea stain for them? Just boil a few tea bags and dip the towels in there, not too long, then rinse and see if it hides the marks. This has been a good read. Alcohol anyone? LOL....

2 comments

by leenova54 01 Dec 2010

Well leave it to Terre to come up with an "if all else fails" way to do it, lol. Did someone say alcohol? I'm up for it. Actually I should just go to bed since it is almost 2a.m.

by nhsmith55 01 Dec 2010

Thanks for the idea Terre. Since they are for a customer, I can't stain them. However, maybe I can do 2 sets. One tea stained and one white! I don't know what else to do with these towels with peoples names on them!

Sorry nothing has worked Nancy; my SIL says that a product called 'Greased Lightening' (a spray bottle) works for her, and it has been sucessful sometimes, not not every time.
Good luck.

1 comment

by nhsmith55 30 Nov 2010

Thanks for the luck, Jacqueline. I'm redo-ing them. The towels aren't much of a problem. I have a Target just down the street. But I've run out of thread now, so I'll have to make a trip to the embroidery store to get more! But any excuse to go to the store works for me!!!

Have you tried Peroxide? It works like a slight bleach so that might do it. Good luck!
Personally, time for a stiff drink in this case, lol! Give me a whiskey sour and all my troubles melt away!

3 comments

by nhsmith55 30 Nov 2010

I tried bleach in the wash water. I thought since they were ruined already, it wouldn't hurt. And I was right! It didn't hurt those brown marks at all!! LOL

by leenova54 01 Dec 2010

You poor thing, makes you just want to scream. I guess starting over is for the best AND you get to shop! I have to go too, I ran out of red thread during a FSL ornament but I finished it off with green and it turned out mighty pretty!

by nhsmith55 01 Dec 2010

I'm out of black thread now, so I'll be buying that today, too.

Thanks for the help everyone! My laundry room is looking like a chemestry lab! Any other ideas? So far nothing has helped. I guess it's been too long. I've learned another hard lesson here. Never try to get ahead in your work!

try one of those Tide stain sticks, it's supposed to work on coffee stains. If nothing works keep them for yourself and start over.

1 comment

by nhsmith55 30 Nov 2010

I'll give the Tide stain sticks a try. These dish towels have names on them! Ann and Kara. 4 of each. A few are salvagable.

Is this why we embroiderers are such happy people? If alcohol doesn't work on the outside, use it on the inside. I am not a drinker, should I strt drinking now?

1 comment

by nhsmith55 30 Nov 2010

I'm not a drinker either. And I think that if I did drink and try to embroider, my machine would know it and mess up!

wonder soap or sunlight soap. That would be what I would try, I have seen the brown marks you are referring to but they just washed out. Good luck.
Alice

2 comments

by nhsmith55 30 Nov 2010

We have sunlight soap here in the USA. It's for hand washing dishes. Is that what you are suggesting?
I've rewashed the towels, no help!

by elizabethak 30 Nov 2010

In SA Sunlight comes in bars (blocks) and is often used by rubbing on nappy stains and left to bleach in the sun. Has a school mate with blonde hair which her mother kept that way by putting the soap in her hair and let her sit in the sun. But if all else fails drink the alcohol & everthing disappears!

nancy, so you are saying that you put the mark on it last year? I had a pillowcase - that I had marked and stitch - forgot to wash it - as I had it with some supplies from a class - later when I went to look for - to show my Mother - she told me - I better get that marking out of it or it wouldn't come out - so I washed them - it didn't come out - so I tried some alcohol on it and washed it after - this time it came out - you might try it and see. *4U

2 comments

by mranderson 30 Nov 2010

If not, drink the alcohol and start again. te te te he he he.

by nhsmith55 30 Nov 2010

At this point I'm ready to drink the alcohol! And I'm not even a drinker! But are you refering to rubbing alcohol?

I use nappy san (baby nappy wash) on my husbands stained farm clothes and this gets out a lot of stains. You could try lemon juice or white vinegar. You may destroy one towel with these remedies or maybe they could work. Worth a try but don't hold me responsible. LOL. Marg

1 comment

by nhsmith55 30 Nov 2010

They are ruined anyway, so anything I do won't hurt them, and I may get lucky! Thanks!

Thought you were going to say you had used the water soluble pen ages ago and when you came to sew them the pen marks had gone.

Hope someone can help you with this problem

1 comment

by nhsmith55 30 Nov 2010

I wish that was the way it happened!