Removing Stains and Odours from Vintage Clothing

Some stains on vintage clothing will come out, many will lighten, and some are permanent damage to the fibre rather than dirt sitting on it. The safe approach is the one conservators use: identify the fibre, test before you treat, start with the gentlest method, and stop if anything changes colour or texture. Musty odours usually improve with airing and surface cleaning, and general yellowing on sturdy white cotton and linen often lightens with a careful hand wash. Silk, wool and anything fragile should not be soaked at all.

Quick answer

• Test every treatment on a hidden area first; if dye moves, stop.
• Musty or storage smells: air in shade, vacuum through a screen, then wash only if the fabric can be washed.
• Yellowing on white cotton and linen: a gentle hand wash in distilled water often lightens it.
• Mould: isolate the garment, dry it, wear a mask, and vacuum the mould off before any wet cleaning.
• Never use chlorine bleach on old textiles, and do not use oxygen bleach (OxiClean-type powders) on silk or wool.
• Sweat damage in old silk is often permanent fibre damage, not a removable stain.

Before you treat anything

Identify the fibre. What you can safely do depends almost entirely on what the garment is made of. Our guide to identifying fabrics explains how.

Check whether it can get wet. The Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) advises against washing knits, bias-cut garments, garments with linings or facings that may shrink, pieces with trims, beads, sequins or feathers, and textiles of wool, silk or early man-made fibres. Fragile or powdering fabric should never be washed. If your garment is in one of these groups, spot treatments with water carry the same risks as washing, and leave visible tide lines too. See how to clean vintage clothing for the full decision table.

Test for colourfastness. Apply a drop of water (then a drop of your cleaning solution) to a hidden spot such as a seam allowance and blot with white cloth. Any colour on the cloth means stop.

Think about value. Some marks are part of a garment's history. If the piece is valuable or early, a careful buyer may prefer an honest stain to a faded, weakened patch where a stain used to be. See repair or leave it.

Odours

Most vintage odours are storage smells (musty, cardboard, mothball), smoke or perfume, or body odour.

Step 1: air it. Hang or lay the garment in a shaded, dry, well-ventilated place for a day or two. Keep it out of direct sun: light damage to textiles is cumulative and irreversible, and it fades dyes quickly.

Step 2: surface clean. Dust holds odour. Vacuum on low suction through a nylon screen, front, back and inside.

Step 3: enclose with an absorbent. For lingering smells, put the garment in a large clean box or bag with an open dish of baking soda or activated charcoal (activated charcoal odor absorber bags), not touching the fabric, for several days. This is low risk and sometimes helps; it will not shift deep body odour.

Step 4: wash, only if the fabric allows. For sturdy, colourfast cotton and linen, a gentle hand wash removes most odours. For wool and sound later garments, a professional dry cleaner is the next step. Ask before sending fragile or early pieces.

Mothball smell. Naphthalene and para-dichlorobenzene, the chemicals in mothballs, are toxic and persistent. Air the garment well, away from living spaces, and wash or dry clean if the fabric allows. Do not use mothballs to store your own clothing (see how to store vintage clothing).

Perfume and fragrance sprays. Masking a smell with fabric sprays only adds untested chemicals to old fibres, and sprays can leave marks. Avoid them.

Mould and mildew

Mould shows as a white or coloured velvety growth with a musty smell. It digests the fibre as it grows, so it weakens fabric as well as staining it. Cotton, linen and rayon are most vulnerable, but CCI notes silk, wool and even synthetics can be affected.

CCI's procedure, adapted for home:

1. Protect yourself. Mould is a health hazard. For a small amount, CCI recommends at minimum an N95 or N100 disposable respirator, disposable gloves and non-vented goggles. People with asthma or allergies should not handle it.
2. Isolate. Seal the garment in a plastic bag so spores do not spread to other clothing.
3. Dry it fast if damp. Air-dry outdoors on a clear, dry day away from people and air intakes. If you cannot dry it right away, seal it and freeze it to stop further growth.
4. Vacuum it off, outdoors. Hold a vacuum nozzle covered with fine screen very close to the surface without touching it; contact smears mould into the fibres.
5. Clean your tools. Wash surfaces and equipment with detergent, then disinfect them (not the garment) with household bleach diluted 1 part to 10 of water, left for 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Then wash or dry clean if the fabric allows. CCI recommends consulting a conservator first. Remaining stains feed future mould.
7. Fix the cause. Do not return the garment to the closet or box where it went mouldy until that space is dry. Mould needs damp: CCI notes it takes three months or more to develop at 70% relative humidity but only days at 90%.

Old mould stains (brown or black flecks) are often permanent because the mould has dyed or digested the fibre.

Yellowing and age discolouration

General yellowing on white cotton and linen is partly soil and partly acidic breakdown products of the aging fibre itself. CCI notes that careful washing removes some of these soluble, acidic degradation products, which is why a gentle soak in distilled water followed by a mild detergent bath can noticeably brighten old whites. Follow the supported hand-wash method in how to clean vintage clothing.

What to avoid:

• Chlorine bleach. It destroys silk and attacks other fibres. Never use it on old textiles.
• Long oxygen-bleach soaks. Oxygen bleaches based on sodium percarbonate release hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate in water. Some restorers use them cautiously on sturdy white cotton, but they can weaken old fibres, strip remaining finishes and remove colour from embroidery or trims. Never use them on silk, wool or coloured pieces, and read the product's fibre warnings.
• Sun bleaching. Leaving whites in sunshine lightens stains by damaging the fibre with light. It is the opposite of conservation practice.

Ivory or ecru silk and wool that has yellowed with age usually cannot be safely whitened at home.

Specific stains

Not sure what you have? Appraise a photo

Products to avoid on vintage

• Chlorine bleach of any kind
• Oxygen bleach or "stain remover" powders on silk, wool, or anything coloured or fragile
• Enzyme stain sprays on silk and wool (enzymes designed to digest protein stains can attack protein fibres)
• Household spot removers and pre-wash sprays without testing
• Fabric fresheners and perfumed sprays
• Hot water, wringing, scrubbing and machine washing for old textiles
• Hot irons on stained areas: heat can set stains permanently

When to stop and call a professional

Stop if the fabric feels weaker, changes texture, starts to shed fibres, or if colour moves. For valuable or early pieces, contact a textile conservator; in the US, the American Institute for Conservation has a directory of professional members. A conservator may advise that a stain is best left alone, and for antique garments that is often the right answer.

Sources

• Canadian Conservation Institute — Washing Non-coloured Textiles (CCI Notes 13/7)
• Canadian Conservation Institute — Mould Growth on Textiles (CCI Notes 13/15)
• Canadian Conservation Institute — Textiles and the Environment (CCI Notes 13/1)
• Canadian Conservation Institute — Hanging Storage for Costumes (CCI Notes 13/5)
• Wikipedia — Weighted silk
• Wikipedia — Silk
• Wikipedia — Sodium percarbonate
• Wikipedia — Mothball
• Wikipedia — Conservation and restoration of textiles
• American Institute for Conservation — Find a Professional Member