My husband's white t-shirts have turned yellow from using bleach. How can I get them white again?
Karen from Dallas, TX
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I used to work in the garment industry and know that most modern white fabrics are not made from white cotton, but from "greige" goods and are later dyed white and cannot be bleached without removing the white dye. If you check your labels before laundering, you will find very few of them that recommend bleach. Way back when (I'm dating myself here) in the fifties, they made colorfast fabrics which could be bleached no matter what color they were (except navy or black), but that seems to have gone with the nickel candy bar and the twenty-five cent quart of milk. Sigh.
Hi, when I bleached my son's sweat shirt turned yellow but immediately I add 3 teaspoons of Bicarbonate of Soda to a hot water & dip the shirt for a few minutes! Bang on! Worked! My son's shirt is pure white now!
I bleach the collar of my favorite golf shirt and it immediately turn yellow. I thought it was ruined.
I add a handful of Bicarbonate of Soda (baking soda) to hot water & soaked the shirt for a few minutes!
In regards to Post By (Guest Post) (03/31/2008)
"most modern white fabrics are not made from white cotton, but from "greige" goods and are later dyed white and cannot be bleached without removing the white dye." If this is the problem, can't you just re-dye them white or another color he might like. GG Vi
If you live in the country, sometimes there is enough rust and iron in the water to cause a reaction to bleach in laundered clothing. I used to use Iron Out for some of the whites, but our water was so bad that I evenatually steered away from buying whites.
Clorox will eventually turn your whites yellow, so use it sparingly. Spray the shirts with Awesome. Let sit for a hour, then I soak white t-shirts in hot water, with baking soda. Put in wash cycle. If still yellow, try soaking them in bluing (add the bluing to the water and mix) then add shirts and wash again.
How do you avoid them turning yellow in the FIRST place, thanks!
Hi, This has also happened to me. I have a white embroidered shirt with a bit of stretch in, its 5% elastene, 95% cotton. I put some ariel stain remover and whitener powder in the wash that was a certain % chlorine bleaching agent. I didn't realize this at the time as I was doing the washing in zombie mode.
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