stain removal

Usually hairspray will remove ball point ink, at least if it's applied first. I don't know if it will work when other stain removers have already been tried, but good luck!

Doreen in Alabama

I have always used regular hairspray, the cheaper, the better. While on the subject of cheap products, I was taught when washing items by hand, use the least expensive shampoo you can find. Most times, it works better than the more expensive because it has less additives in it. BTW, Vashti is a very unusual name. The only time I have heard it before is reading my family history--that was the name of either a sister or an aunt of my DGM. Emily

Ethanol works brilliantly, if you can get it. If not, try cheap hair spray.

Spread the blouse over a pad of absorbant fabric or kitchen roll and work from the outside in. Keep changing the pad so the stain doesn't spread and contaminate a wider area.

I've always used cheap hairspray, too. Really saturate the spot and then BLOT, don't rub with a clean white cloth and another folded under the stain. Keep refolding and moving both clothes so you aren't decontaminating the stain. I found out the hard way that some *Rollerball Gel pens have a different ink than ballpoint pens. I had a white cotton turtle neck that I just could not get the marks out of (pen in dryer fiasco). I finally cut it up into hunks for dusting and cleaning and while using Pledge one day I sprayed (what had been turned into a rag) with Pledge to do my china cabinet and the stain dissolved. *sigh*

*And a note about gel pens. One check fraud scheme is to "wash away" the To____ and the Amount______ written and then fill in another name and larger amount. The chemical used will actually wash away ball point pen and Sharpie pens and leave no sign on the check that it was done or had been exposed to any kind of fluid or liquid. Whatever the chemical is in Roller Gel pens, it won't wash, so to speak. Use a Gel pen for check writing. I heard this from a detective on the news awhile back when being interviewed about this check fraud scam going on in our city.

Val

In article , vashti of UseNetServer.com uttered

Try "stain devils" - the one for ballpoint pen ink

plain old rubbing alcohol works, too. do a bit of wet and rub, then flood it with the isopropol. (nurse's trick for getting pengoop out of uniform pockets)

Vashti,

I'm sorry to say, from my experience, you may never get this out if you have a really big thick blob of biro (ball point) ink on your blouse.

I've found that if I catch my blouse with a biro in passing it usually washes straight out, but a couple of times my DH has had bad biro accidents. (He always makes more mess than I do!). He's had a couple of biro's explode in his shirt breast pockets, and I've never managed to get them completly clean - even over years of washing the same shirt.

Cheap hairspray does remove a lot, and if your blouse is white, once you have got as much out as possible using hairspray, you may want to try a drop of bleach to lighten the clour of any remaining, but it may not do anything. If you have already tried other remedies, and the stain is 'set', you may not get it out.

Why not consider a patch or embroidery over the stain, and add a couple of extra embellishments at the same time so it looks planned rather than made-do.

HTH,

Sarah