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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

And another one bites the dust


The saddest thing is, that's the only flaw on this shirt - one of my favorite shirts I got while in HK last summer.

Unless I can figure out a way to a) get the pen mark out, or b) cover the stain with something (brooch? flower pin? sew on a patch or pocket? all sounds bad, except for the brooch idea), this shirt is destined for the rag pile.

Lucky I had some foresight (for once in my life) and bought the twin to this shirt. I've got one more to mess up with random ink swipes.

EDIT: Just hunted down an old hair accessory and made it into a brooch using a mini-safety pin. Looks a little funny to me, probably because I'm not used to it. Probably won't be wearing this to teach anymore anyway. Never teach with super long necklaces or other potential dangly snags when teaching any large number of students at any age level. It's not fun when I catch it on something (say, during P.E. instruction) and it falls apart, taking the front part of my shirt with it.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Take it to the cleaner's!! They can do amazing stain-removey things!!! '.'/

bun2bon said...

I wish I could! Although I don't know if giving a $10 cleaning to a $5 shirt is worth it.

The cleaner's in my town aren't the greatest. They can do straightforward stuff, but the last time I took a pen ink stain in they did nothing. Their excuses were: 1) different pens have different inks and some inks are tougher than others, 2) different fabrics mingle with different inks in different ways, doing anything more would damage the shirt and still not get the stain out, and 3) the ink had already set in - it's like dying fabrics. Both the cloth and the ink are just doing it's chemical job.

If I ever find a cleaners that can actually work miracles on the cheap, I'll do it.

vicky said...

maybe you can try rubbing alcohol? rubbing alcohol can even take out permanent markers (at least, on glass or plastic).

maybe this site can help a little? http://www.doityourself.com/stry/ballpointink

either way, that brooch you made looks really nice! you're prolly just not used to wearing it (i know i'm not!).

bun2bon said...

Thanks for the link. Seems like there's lots of useful things there.

Yep. I try everything that I can think of first, including rubbing alcohol and even paint thinner (which is bad on some fabrics, learned that the hard way). With most ink from ballpoint or gel pens, it's a lost cause. =[