Caring And Restoring Your Vintage White Clothing

You just have to love vintage clothing! Taking a step back in time while wearing well-made harder-to-find items can make you feel great, look great, and capture the eye of those passing by. Unfortunately, white vintage clothing doesn't always look so white. How do you get the yellow out of the vintage clothing safely? Here, you'll find a few tips.

No Bleach – Ever!

Get rid of the bleach – don't even let it near your vintage clothing. Bleach is very harsh and will cause the fibers in the clothing to break down and fall apart. You may have read to soak the vintage items in a water and bleach mixture for a few hours – while the clothes may come out looking whiter, you've just taken a few years of wear out of the life of the fabric.

OxyClean Soak

This is a miracle product that works on so many fresh stains, as well as removes the yellow out of vintage white clothes. To soak the clothes, follow the guide on the OxyClean label – it will tell you how much powder to use in how much water – if you don't use enough, it won't work – using too much is just a waste.

When you mix the OxyClean with the water, make sure that you mix it until the particles have dissolved fully. If you don't, it will all settle after you put the clothing into the mixture – this could result in very white spots showing up in the fabric. This will cause you to need to resoak the item and hope that the rest of the fabric becomes as white as those dots did.

Be Selective with Water

When you're washing your vintage white items, you need to be very selective about the water that's used. If you have hard water, don't run the clothes through the washing machine. Doing so could result in causing the yellowing to worsen or causing discolorations that weren't there.

If you have hard water, you have three options to wash your vintage whites – go to a laundromat, send them to the cleaners, or hand wash them in bottled water.

Skip the Dryer

Don't throw your vintage whites in the dryer – at least not until you've looked them over closely to make sure that any yellowing or stains have been removed first. If you put them in the dryer and heat them up without removing the stains, the stains will be more difficult to remove.

Keep on loving those vintage items! With the right care, they can remain a part of your wardrobe until today's clothes are considered vintage in the future.