Stain Removal

[Guest]

This evening I was on the receiving end of a flying glass, knocked off a table I suspect, rather than intentionally flung. The upshot is that my best suit was splashed with some kind of beer (I think), though mercifully I am unharmed.

Of course, dry cleaning is out of the question. Could some sort of spot-cleaning and steaming deal with this? Are there any home remedies I can employ in the meantime?

Thanks,

Eden

[Guest]

I don't know about beer but I can tell you a wine story.

Upon returning from a busines trip to New York a couple of months ago, I found my self dressed in a wonderful wool tweed jacket with a beautiful glass of wine in my hand. I had taken off my tie but still had on a white shirt. You can easily guess that the wine was red, in this case a California cab made by the firm of Karl Lawrence in the year 00.

So good was the wine and so relaxed was I that the glass joined me on my journey upstairs to check in on my sleeping girls. When I got to the bedroom of my middle daughter, I leant over the bed to brush a lock of hair from her face as a way of saying goodnight. Startled into motion, her arm flailed out and ejected the contents of the wine glass dead center into my chest. I looked as though I had been shot full in the chest.

I figured that the shirt was "killed" and thought about salvage to the jacket. Making my way to the tile floor of our bathroom, closen because the copious drips of wine would be most easilt cleaned there, I contemplated the next step. Turning on the "water-telephone" in the shower to a fine jet of cold spray;I doused the jacket, and I mean that I doused the jacket. Wondering if i would ruin the lining or kill the wool, I soldiered forth and ran every bit of red out of the garment.

The jacket hung to dry and dripping water rather than wine in the shower, I refilled my wine glass and mourned the loss of the jacket. The jacket had mostly dired by morning and after a quick touch up with an iron looks as good as new.

I'm not sure I'd try this with a fused jacket. Good luck with the beer.

DDM

[Guest]

I was at a wedding this last weekend when red wine went for a journey across some wool carpet (tribal drumming has this effect on some, please don't ask further.) A long discussion ensued over whether in fact it was warm or cool water that truly set the stain -- something to the effect of dyed garments placed in cool water to set the color.

I confess to not really know which is the proper course anymore. And obviously, I mourn the loss of all the remaining club soda in the cabinet misused for house duty, leaving me to cannibalize my Campari with tonic.

e.

[Guest]

I located, at some length, a dying breed - a seemingly reputable drycleaner who offered to treat only the affected area, and with the bare minimum cleaning agent possible to do the job. I was not dissatisfied, though I'd still be happier to avoid the experience in future...