To whiten a woolen white sweater - mission impossible?

Snow-white things embody tenderness, lightness, cleanliness, but, unfortunately, they tend to quickly turn yellow and get dirty. To whiten a woolen white sweater is not easy, it requires certain knowledge. Boiling and the use of bleaching agents with chlorine are contraindicated for him. What can be used and how - we will tell further.

Features of whitening sweaters

Many people know that the most effective way to get perfect whiteness is to boil a thing with chlorine. However, in the case of yarn products, this does not work. Artificial acrylic, like natural wool, behaves unpredictably in this procedure and can acquire an ugly rusty tint. It is also not possible to use coloring compounds at home, since they are often distributed unevenly and are washed off after several washings.

If you decide to bleach a white sweater on your own, remember the 5 basic rules:

1. You can use folk and chemical products without chlorine.
2. The solution must be warm for a chemical reaction to occur. But not hot, so that the product does not sit and deform.
3. It is important to choose the right whitening utensil - no chrome content to avoid the appearance of a gray tint. Enameled, ceramic, plastic or glass containers are suitable.
4. If the sweater is woolen, extreme care must be taken, since in the water the wool soaks and becomes vulnerable to deformation. The product can not be rubbed, twisted, squeezed.
5. Before using this or that bleach, it is better to conduct a test by treating a small area of ​​the jacket.

You can bleach only a clean thing, washed in advance. Otherwise, the mud will mix with the bleaching solution and will give an ugly shade.

Special tools

Wool is a delicate fabric, and active oxygen products are used to whiten it. When buying, it is important to pay attention that the gel or powder works in warm water (30 or 40 degrees).

The most popular oxygen bleaches:

• "BOS plus OXI." Budget but effective tool. For bleaching, it is best to soak the sweater in 2 liters of warm water, after dissolving 60 g of powder in it (2 scoops). Duration of soaking - 30-40 minutes.
• "Sodasan Oxygen Whitening." Perfectly brightens woolen products. The tool is added during machine wash to the powder in an amount of 2 tbsp. tablespoons or soak the sweater in a solution of 1 tbsp. l bleach and 3 liters of water for 25-30 minutes. It works at a temperature of 40 degrees.
• Vanish Oxi Action. Liquid stain remover and bleach in one bottle from a well-known brand. Vanish works smoothly and efficiently. An acrylic sweater in a solution of 4 liters of water and 1 cap of gel should be soaked for 5 hours, woolen for 1 hour. Before rinsing the product, it is recommended to walk with a soft brush or rub it with your hands (with stroking movements).

All of these tools can be used for bleaching both manually and in the washing machine in the delicate washing mode. But when soaking, the effect is stronger. In addition, there is less risk of damaging the sweater, because the process is completely controlled and can be stopped at any time.

Folk recipes

For whitening a white wool jacket, it is undesirable to use alkalis - baking soda and soda ash, ordinary washing powders. Like bleach, they corrode the protein that makes up the pile, which worsens the appearance of the product and decreases its strength.

At home, the following remedies safely and effectively help lighten wool:

• Laundry soap. For bleaching purposes, it is better to use a light bar marked "72%". Wet sweater should be properly rubbed with soap, and then add 2-3 liters of warm water and leave everything for 2 hours. Next, the product must be gently rubbed with your hands or a brush and rinsed thoroughly.
• Hydrogen peroxide. To effectively whiten a white wool sweater, you need to prepare the following solution: 30 ml of 3% peroxide in 3-5 liters of warm water. Upon contact with the smallest particles of dirt, active oxygen will be released, deeply cleansing the tissue and removing the unnecessary shade. Soaking time - 30-40 minutes. Periodically, the sweater needs to be turned so that it bleaches evenly.
• Hydroperite. The drug is available in tablets. It works similarly to hydrogen peroxide, corroding pollution and removing yellowness. For 5 liters of warm water you will need 3-4 tablets. After dissolving them in water, the sweater is left to soak for 20-40 minutes. Then it is washed with a liquid detergent or shampoo, rinsed and left to dry on a terry towel in a straightened form.

To keep the sweater soft and silky after the bleaching procedure, it is recommended to add fabric softener or 100 ml of table vinegar (for 3 l of water) at the last rinse.

Manual whitening

For the procedure you will need: a basin or pan of 5 l, a soft brush, the selected bleaching agent and the sweater itself.

Step-by-step instruction:

1. Wash the jacket in soapy water if it is dirty. If not, just wet and let the water drain.
2. Prepare a solution for bleaching and control the temperature of the water (should be within 30-40 degrees).
3. Put a wet sweater in the solution and leave for half an hour. The duration of soaking is indicated average - it is better to focus on the information indicated on the packaging of the bleach.
4. Now it remains to rinse the sweater. But first, it is recommended to rub it with a brush or stroke it without wrinkling.
5. Dry the jacket on a horizontal surface and only then evaluate the result (dry cloth looks an order of magnitude lighter than wet).

For effective whitening during soaking, it is necessary to maintain the temperature of the solution. To do this, you can cover the container and wrap it with a blanket or put it on a large pot with boiling water (the effect of a steam bath).

Whitening sweaters in a typewriter

If you just need to slightly refresh the white color of the sweater, you can use the washing machine.

1. Load the sweater into the drum.
2. Set the program “Wool”, “Delicate wash” or wash at 30-40 degrees.
3. In the compartment, put a detergent for woolen things (or ordinary powder, if the sweater is artificial), add oxygen bleach according to the instructions.
4. Make sure spin and drying are turned off.
5. Dry the product straightened.

To resort to bleaching agents, folk or oxygen, you need no more than 1 time in 3-4 washings.

Yellowing of the sweater may be due to the presence of rust in the water, contamination with particles of skin, cosmetics. Then any of the above methods will help whiten the thing. But it also happens that a change in color is caused by leaching of the dye. Natural wool is not snow-white, but rather milky, with a beige tint. In this case, only dry cleaning will help, where dyeing of woolen products is practiced.