Cleaning Nicotine Stains Off Old Doll Dress

I am looking for tips for getting nasty nicotine stains from years of cigarette smoke on an old cotton doll dress. The dress is in good condition except for the browning from nicotine. It has, what was once, white cotton lace trim. The dress is supposed to be a pale pink. Thanks so much!

Sandy Joy from Maine

Answers:

Cleaning Nicotine Stains Off Old Doll Dress

I don't know if this will help or not but I used to smoke in the house untill I got married and my wife used 409 the orginial and that just cut the nicotine off the walls. Maybe you can soak it overnight in it but I would call the 800 number on the back B/4 doing something like I suggested. Good Luck (03/29/2005)

By jeff burnett

Cleaning Nicotine Stains Off Old Doll Dress

You didn't mention how old the doll dress is. I use two products from Twin Pines for cleaning my Vintage Barbie doll clothing. They are Formula 9-1-1 and Perk! and can be ordered online. Do a google search for Twin Pines. They are very gentle and specifically made for this purpose.

You can also try soaking the dress in a denture tablet solution, which I have done with whites, but not with colors.

In any case, do not despair, the dress is not lost to you. :-) (05/20/2005)

By Gail Ruth

Cleaning Nicotine Stains Off Old Doll Dress

You also might try soaking the doll dress in a gallon of water with 2 scoops of OxyClean overnight. This stuff works *wonders* - I've used this method on almost every collectible in my house, and have never had a problem with bleeding colors - test an inconspicuous spot before dunking though, just to be on the safe side. Good luck with it :) (06/02/2005)

By Beaker