Put This On

From our friends over at StyleForum, a five-step system for getting rid of stubborn stains in shirts using vinegar and Oxiclean.  This isn’t infallible, but you’d be amazed at the results.  I often will take a flier on a great thrift shirt with ring-around-the-collar, and give this a shot.  Usually I end up with a shirt that’s clean as a whistle.

How to Clean Shirts

1. Soak shirt in a solution made from one gallon hot water (as hot as it will come out of the faucet) and one cup of vinegar. Let the shirt soak for 30 mins to 2 hours.
2. Rinse shirts, and squeeze out excess water. Empty bucket and rinse. In a cup, prepare a concentrated Oxy-Clean solution. Make sure to use the Oxy-Clean granules that come in the tub. Make the solution about 10 parts HOT water to one part O-C. Usually this amounts to two scoops of O-C (using the provided scoop) per 4-6 ounces of water. You want this to be very concentrated.
3. Apply the strong solution generously to the stained areas. Place the shirts in a bucket (so that the solution doesn’t flow away, or dry) with the stained areas towards the bottom of the bucket so they stay nice and covered in the solution. Allow to soak overnight. It can also help to use an old toothbrush and scrub the stained areas every hour or so, if you’ve got the time.
4. In the morning, remove the shirts from bucket. Fill the bucket with a gallon of hot water, and two scoops of the Oxy-Clean (basically, follow the recipe on the package for a general cleaning solution) and mix well. Place the shirts in the bucket, and soak for 2-24 hours. This just helps to remove any trace of stain. You might want to stir the shirts around with your hands after you put them in the bucket with the weaker solution just to remove some of the stronger solution that is still on the shirts.
5. Remove, and wash/rinse in the regular cycle on your washing machine.

Note: I find that this normally removes sweat/dirt stains from the armpit, neck, and cuff with ease. For really strong stains, you might have to repeat the process a few times.

Q and Answer

Jacob from LA writes to us:

While I understand a good deal about the care of my New Standards, shirts have always eluded me. Dry cleaning is a no no, but should I fear a cleaner’s launder/press service and go the entire hand way? Any advice is warmly welcomed.

Here’s the story: most dry cleaners are hacks.  They’ll throw your shirt into a vat of boiling water and chemicals and press it all at once at crazy temperatures.  There are exceptions to this rule, but they are few and tough to find.  If you want the convenience of dropping shirts off dirty and picking them up folded and pressed, then the price you pay is a shorter lifespan.  (The other price you pay is the price you pay - a buck or two per shirt per wash.)

We recommend washing your shirts yourself.  Put a little stain remover on the inside of the collars - OxiClean works great.  Wash them in the machine on delicate with like colors, and either hang dry them (better) or dry them on low heat.  If you like, you can iron them while they’re still very slightly moist - the ironing will be easier.

That said, when we’re rich, we’re going to have a laundry service, and when our Barba shirts get shiny from ironing, we’re going to use them to mop up spills around the garage.  And we’ll also take a lot of treasure baths.

My mother spent several years as a textile conservator.  It was her job to clean and preserve fabrics of all kinds without damaging them for San Francisco’s The Mexican Museum.

When she saw our segment on denim care, she just about exploded out of her seat to send me an email demanding that we use Orvus Paste Shampoo rather than Woolite Dark, which is what we recommended.  And moms are always right.

Let’s start with this admission: Orvus Paste Shampoo is for horses.  And dogs.  On the plus side, though, it’s apparently “great on manure stains.”

Orvus is used by conservators because it’s completely Ph-neutral and exceedingly gentle, even more so than Woolite or Dr. Bronners or any other product on the market.  It’s also used by quilters to care for delicate quilts - if you’re buying the small jar, you’ll find it at a quilting store, rather than the feed stores where you’ll find the larger jars.

Now, all of this is getting a bit precious, I know.  I’ve used regular laundry detergent to wash my jeans, and it was just fine.  But there’s no doubt that the process is part of the fun of raw denim, and I’m not going to keep you from buying some Orvus, in case of manure stains.

Plus, I’ve got a dog who needs a shampoo from time to time… and a quilt Nee-Naw made that could use a wash.  That’s it, it’s settled.  Orvus Paste Shampoo it is.