Ms. Dizzy,
I have a Dry Clean Only linen skirt that has been stained with blood (I think) then taken to the dry cleaner and they were unable to get the stain out. 1st question, is there anything that I can do to get the stain out, 2nd question, can I dye the skirt to cover the stain. Please help, favorite skirt.
Thank You
Anna

Dear Anna,
Since you have nothing to lose, I would suggest an attempt to wash the skirt using cool to tepid water. See if you can get the spot out yourself. Linen actually washes fine, but it may lose the surface smoothness. If it is lined, the lining will wash fine, too. It may lose some color if the lining is acetate, which tends to leak out color when wet. To avoid too much dripping red, roll the wet item in an old towel before hanging to dry.
Another alternative is to try the stain remover that comes with Dryel, that at-home dry cleaning process that uses the dryer. I haven’t tried it myself, but I looked over the instructions with the kit that I have and it seems like this might work. My friend Lisa reports that the stain removing part of Dryel is very effective. (I have used the Dryel but not the stain removing part.)
If that doesn’t work, you can contact Sherry at www.fabricdyeing.com to see what she advises. You could conceivably dye it yourself, but with a stain, I wouldn’t chance it. This sort of stain takes the dye as well and just makes a darker stain.
good luck, and actually I would appreciate it if you would write back to let me know what you try and what works.
Jennifer