Not Fast Colours!
Dear Aunt Daisy, I wonder if you can help me with my problem. I have a very pretty frock, of material like boiling silk, with very vivid colours on a white background. Although assured by. the salesgirl that the frock would wash, I find, to my grief, that the colours have run into the white. Do you know of anything I could take the colours out with? Or of any solution which could be painted on? Or any place which undertakes that kind of thing? "Barbara." I’m afraid I don’t know of any firm which deals with these most distressingly frequent "runnings." The only thing I can suggest is the expedient adopted by a lady who washed her daughter's white tennis frock without removing the scarlet buttons! These were not fast colours and made bad stains on the frock. The lady folded the frock with the stains uppermost, and laid it in a tub of water, so that the water just nearly covered the frock. Then she plastered baking soda thickly all down the stains and left the whole thing there for two or three days. There was enough water to keep it damp without. washing it off. At the end of that time the stains were faint, and washed right out with sudsy water and a little ammonia, Perhaps the method given to me for removing the stains of Gentian Violets
might be even better. Get from the chemist "half dilute hydrochloric acid." Dilate hydrochloric acid is a proper standard in the British Pharmacopedia and half dilute is, therefore, half as strong. Moisten small balls of cotton wool with the acid, and rub these on the actual marks with a circular motion. This means that the balls of wool absorb the dye, without spreading it. Repeat with clean balls till it is out. Hydrochloric acid must not be used on any material containing cellulose as it reacts chemically with the cellulose and will damage the fabric. When sponging stains on.frocks, etc., it is best to puta sheet or two of new, perfectly clean blotting paper underneath, as_ this absorbs the stain and the solvent, without spreading. It must be clean and new-no inky bits! Will you let me know how you get on? ~
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 26
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377Not Fast Colours! New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 26
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