Resident stain specialists!

[andic29]

Im in trouble... I quickly threw a load of my husbands work clothes into the washer and didn't quite check the pockets good enough (in my defense his uniforms have, literally, about 10 pockets on the tops and on the bottoms) and I missed the ink pen in the little pen holder on his sleeve.
I've done this in the past with a sharpie and oddly enough managed to get the stain out with just alcohol but it's not working on this run of the mill ink stain! What else can I try? I have to have this top ready to go by Monday!

 

[retro-man]

Hopefully you haven't dried this already. If it is baked in it may not come out. I have had good look with a good stiff hair spray, spray directly onto the spot and try blotting it out with paper towels. Maybe someone else here might have other suggestions.

Jon

 

[supersuds]

I collect fountain pens and getting ink out of clothes is a recurring problem.

The two products that have the biggest following are called Amodex and Ink Nix. They are available from a number of online suppliers, but that won't do much good if you need something by Monday. My impression is that Didi 7 cleaner is much like Ink Nix and I think they sell it at Kmart.

 

[cranraspberry]

I recently managed to get an ink stain out of ACUs (actually the exact same spot on the ACUs!) that had gone through the dryer multiple times with sodium percarbonate and boiling water. I took a medium sized bowl, put only the part with the stain in, sprinkled a couple of Tbsp of sodium percarbonate on the stain and added boiling water from a tea kettle and let all that soak. I think I had to repeat several times to get it completely out.

If that didn't work my next step would have been nail polish remover, but that would need spot testing to make sure it wouldn't discolor everything.

 

[andic29]

Thank you for the replies. I wasn't able to get the stain out, had to buy a complete new uniform (can't mix and match, husband hates it when the tops and bottom don't fade at the same rate) so that sucked and Im out 100 bucks.
I will try to products suggested as the top is still soaking and has never been through the dryer.
Cranraspberry, did you notice even slight fading where the sodium percarbonate/hot water was?

 

[cranraspberry]

That pair of ACUs was pretty old, so it's a little hard to tell (it was pretty faded on its own). I want to say that there might have been some slight fading on the part that was immersed in water, but a. my husband is not picky (I don't think he'd ever be able to tell if the jacket and pants didn't match perfectly) and b. it was a "nothing to lose" kind of thing, since the jacket was already ruined. In your case I would probably spot test on something first, just to be on the safe side!