Favourite Dress Ruined by Food Spill? Here's How to Clean it!

Has your fun time ever been ruined by a food or drink spill on your favourite dress during a party? That is a sad moment many of us experienced. A few drops of red wine or bits of dark chocolate are enough to turn a fancy white dress into a mess. The first thing that comes to mind is “The dress is ruined and I have to throw it away”. But while many stains and spills are stubborn and hard to clean, there is still a way to save your favourite party dress if food or drink spilt on it.

In this article, we’ll explore how to clean and save dress with food or drink spills and sweat marks.

Dust

It’s not always a spillage that ruins the cloth. Sometimes, we open the wardrobe and find an old dress we love. But it’s dusty. Patting the dress to wipe the dust is not recommended as the dust particles will get deeper into the cloth fibres.

To get rid of dust off your dress, it’s best to take it outside and give it a good shake. If there’s still some dust on the dress after shaking it, use a clean lint roller to remove it.

If the dress has been exposed to dust for a long time, it may smell weird. In this case, wash it according to the label instructions after removing the dust.

Mud

It’s frustrating when you walk down the street after the rain and an irresponsible driver passes at speed, splashing water and mud on your precious dress. You can start shouting or even making heated remarks about the driver, but, unfortunately, it won’t clean your dress.

What you have to do is to get home and hand the dress to dry completely. Don’t try to scrape off mud or other stains when the dress is wet. It’s going to make it worse. When it is dry, scrape the mud gently with a spoon.

Afterwards, make a paste by mixing some detergent with pre-wash powders and some water. Rub the paste on the remaining spots. This will help remove most of the mud stains off your favourite dress.

You can wash the dress at the end according to the instructions on the dress label.

Sweat Marks

The summer is closer than you think and the heat will leave some sweat marks on your dress. But did you know most sweat marks are really easy to clean? Yes! You can easily clean sweat marks with a few green cleaning solutions at home.

Pour one cup of white vinegar or lemon juice into a large bowl of warm water. Then, drop sweaty clothes and let them soak until the water is cold or reaches room temperature. Rinse afterwards and hang to dry.

Cleaning sweat marks off white clothes is a bit harder. They usually turn yellow and are difficult to clean. In this case, add oxygen bleach on top of normal laundry detergent and soak the white cloth for a few minutes. Hand or machine wash afterwards according to the dress label.

Oily Stains

Oil stains are probably the most difficult type of stain to clean off dresses. The best thing you can do in case of oil stains on your clothes is to take them to professional dry cleaners. However, you can also try this DIY method at some if the oil stain is small and not serious:

Blot the spot with a clean and mildly damp towel.
Put the stained part of the cloth on a flat surface and sprinkle a teaspoon of baking soda on the stain. Then, let it sit for 30 to 45 minutes.
Use a soft toothbrush to scrub the baking soda until the powder starts to clump up. This means baking soda absorbs the oil.
Pour a few drops of dish soap on the baking soda and start rubbing until the dish soap and baking soda are properly mixed.
Rinse the cloth under running lukewarm water.
If the oil stain has been cleaned completely, throw it into the washing machine. Follow the instructions on the label and use a general laundry detergent.

Gravy

Gravy stains are similar to oil stains. Therefore, the process of cleaning them off any fabric or cloth is similar to cleaning oil stains. However, first, clean off the gravy residues. Also, it’s recommended to wash the cloth with hot water, either by hand or using a washing machine.

However, it depends on the type of fabric. See the dress label and follow the cleaning instructions to see if washing the cloth with hot water doesn’t damage the fabric.

You can also use certain laundry detergents (a.k.a. biological detergents) with specific enzymes that thoroughly clean gracy and similar stains.

Red Wine

Cleaning red wine stains is easy as long as you act quickly when it is still wet. If you’re not at home, you can keep the wine stain wet or moist with still or soda water. To clean a red wine spill, sprinkle salt on the area and allow it to absorb the wine.

Next, clean the salt off the cloth and soak the stained part of the garment in cold water or soda water. Then, both out the stain with a soft towel until the stain is cleaned.

White Wine & Prosecco

Cleaning white wine or prosecco stains is fairly similar to cleaning red wine stains. You should do it quickly while the stain is still wet. For smaller stains, you can soak the dress in and out of cold water repeatedly until the stain fades away. Also, washing the cloth according to the label instructions is effective in cleaning white wine stains.

Beer

Cleaning beer stains off fabric isn’t difficult compared to other stains and spills we discussed in this article. Just mix liquid soap or liquid laundry detergent with some lukewarm water. Then, use a clean and soft towel or sponge to clean the stain while repeatedly dabbing the stain part. Do this until the stain is gone.

If you can’t get rid of the beer stain completely, mix some baking soda with laundry detergent to make a paste. Then apply the paste on the stains and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Rinse the paste with lukewarm water and machine wash the dress. This will also help with eliminating the beer smell from your clothes.

Gum

Have you ever gone to the park to relax and enjoy some fresh air but sitting on a piece of gum stuck on the park bench? Many of us have this unpleasant and disgusting experience. Regardless, you have to clean the gum off your trousers or dress and the method isn’t hard but it requires time and patience.

All you need is ice and a spoon or a dull knife. Leave an ice cube on the gum to harden it. Then start scraping the gum with a spoon or a dull knife. Scrape until the gum is warmed up and is soft again. Apply and ice again and do this repeatedly until all gum prices are scraped off.

You can finish up by throwing the dress in the washing machine and washing it according to the label instructions.

Chocolate & Ice Cream

To clean white, milk or dark chocolate of any type of ice cream off your favourite partyware, you can follow these easy steps:

Scrape the excess residues with a dull knife or spoon.
Turn the dress inside out if possible and run cold water over the back of the stained part of the fabric.
Apply a few drops of liquid laundry detergent on the spot until it forms a foam.
Soak the dress or fabric in the cold water for at least 30 minutes. If the stain isn’t cleaned properly, continue to soak for a few times more.
At the end, wash the cloth according to the instructions on the tag.

Coffee or Tea

Many people believe that coffee or tea stains on light-colour clothing never go away. But that’s not the case. You can, in fact, clean coffee and tea stains off your white clothes if you know what to use and how to do it.

To clean coffee and tea stains off clothing, mix half a teaspoon of liquid dishwashing or laundry detergent and 1 tablespoon of white vinegar with lukewarm water. Soak the stained cloth in the solution for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, rinse with clean water. Let the cloth dry in the air.

Afterwards, see if the stain is removed. If it is still visible, go ahead and repeat the process. Otherwise, wash the cloth in the washing machine or by hand according to the cloth tag instructions.

This method is also effective in cleaning sugary juice stains. You can also wash the stained cloth with enzymatic laundry detergents. For white cloths, oxygen bleach is effective if other cleaning solutions are ineffective.

Glitter

We all experienced glitter sticking to skin or cloth and stayed for a long time until miraculously disappeared. But there is a way to get rid of glitter quickly.

You can use a damped soft microfibre cloth to dab away the glitter or a clean lint roller to remove it easily.

Also, you can use a handheld vacuum cleaner or any vacuum cleaner on low power to remove bits of glitter that are stuck in between cloth fibres.

Conclusion

Food stains and drink spills on clothes are unpleasant experiences. The feeling of losing a favourite piece of cloth because of food stains or sweat marks is frustrating. But it doesn’t need to be like that, especially since most food and drink spills can be cleaned and wiped away using tried-and-tested DIY methods. In this article, we explored how to clean almost any food stains, sweat marks and drink spills on clothing without causing damage to the garment.

The information provided by this article can help you find the right way to clean any stain off your dress and save your favourite partyware.

How to Clean Your Favourite Dress With Food Spills or Sweat Marks?