Advice No. 1: How to get stains out of white sheets?

[i-need-a-martini]

They are all my beautiful old vintage cotton and linen Italian sheets. And I want them crisp and perfectly white without yucky looking stains.

I have tried bleaching them and left them in the sun for days but still nothing.

(I am sure you can guess the stains I mean)

[azureline**]

They must have been put away in storage with stains on them, which have now become yellowed and permanent. I had new sheets given to me by an Italian friend, all still in packaging, the sticky bits from the labels and the tape from the packaging caused similar stains which never came out of them.

Beautiful sheets though, with embroidered tops.

[**meep**]

oh, you're not talking about drool stains

i'm afraid you've left it too long. you need to wash them after use :^O

it does glow in the dark so you may be able to use the sheets at a black light dance party

[dskracing]

soak in soda water overnight

[freakiness]

If you've got a large enough pot you could boil in napisan infused water.

I'm with Crikey, enough napisan, in hot enough water, for long enough time will remove most stains.

Enough napisan means 2 or 3 lid fulls not the level one suggested on the pack   😄

Bleach with wreck the fabric. Do not use bleach on anything you want to last long enough to use.

[oldworldlady]

The biggest pot you can find,

one cap of napisan

one squirt of washing up liquid.

One sheet at a time.

Bring to the boil -watch very carefully as you're going to get a lot of foam when it boils.

Simmer with lid on for at least 10 minutes

Allow to cool in pot

Rinse really well

Repeat if it still needs more treatment.

ONLY for cotton or linen, not polyblends.

don't soak coloured embroidery if you can help it. watch it like a hawk if you have to.

Good luck

[arkumentivelee_stield]

Bleach with wreck the fabric. Do not use bleach on anything you want to last long enough to use.

seriously?

ive used bleach on all my whites for years and years without issue or what seems to be a shorter life span

[nicnacs_4u]

If none of these tips work perhaps you would be better just dying them to another color,at least you still would have the quality of the fabric it just would be a different color.

[cherry*135]

Bleach is not OK if applied direct to the fabric and left on it for awhile.. it will rot the fabric.

Soaking in a bleach solution is OK though, for recommended time and washed straight after.

As the sheets have been soaked in bleach, I don't think there is much chance of anything else getting the stains out.

Why weren't the stains removed before storing the sheets?

I have just moved house and some of my linen  that had not been used for a long time- like pillowcases have gone yellow in parts, not from stains just from storage.

It washed out though, after soaking in laundry soaker.

Instead of napisan products, try laundry soaker perhaps. It is in similar tubs to napisan, but covers more different stains.

[cherry*135]

Also if leaving the sheets out in the sun for days on end didn't fade the stains out.. not much else will.

[cherry*135]

Soak them long term in laundry soaker powder solution, change the solution every couple of days maybe?