Why is treating stains at home not always a good idea?
• Recently, I stained some slacks and tried to treat the stain myself but wasn’t very successful. When I took them to the dry cleaners, they noticed that I had only treated a portion of the stained fabric. When I went back for the slacks, the section I had tried to treat was still stained, but the part that I had missed was now gone. Why would that be the case? • While treating stains yourself may seem like the most cost-efficient alternative, care needs to be taken. Improperly treated, certain stains will only set deeper into the fabric, making their removal near-impossible. The characteristics of the stain-causing substance and the stained fabric need to be considered so that you can judge which treatments will help and which ones will hinder your stain-removal effort. For your reference, here are some things to remember: • Always blot the stain at once, and don’t rub it. Rubbing can make the substance penetrate deeper into the fibres and/or may damage the fabric’s surface. • Some cl
