White woolen items: how to restore whiteness and get rid of grayness and yellowness

Not every housewife can answer the question of how to bleach a woolen item at home. Surely you are familiar with the situation when, after diligent washing or improper drying, you had to say goodbye to a woolen item forever - the clothes lost their shape: they stretched or shrank. To prevent this from happening, we offer you several simple options; we will tell you how to bleach wool at home using improvised and industrial means.

Simple, fast, convenient

Need to bleach a pure white wool hat or sweater? Use the well-known "Whiteness". Just without fanaticism. Prepare a weak bleach solution at the rate of 50 ml of liquid per 7 - 10 liters of water, immerse the item in it and wait half an hour - an hour. Do not forget to turn the item in the solution so that the process proceeds evenly.

Important! When bleaching wool, do not use hot water! Maximum temperature – 30 – 40 degrees.

The method is good, but it cannot be used often - chlorine is still too aggressive a component, any fabrics deteriorate under its influence. Take note of the method as an emergency when other methods “didn’t work.”

Ammonia

In everyday life, this product is sometimes used to remove stains from woolen clothes. The most effective way to lighten white things with ammonia is if you combine it with other active substances. Housewives have come up with a simple and effective way to bleach a wool sweater with ammonia, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar:

1. Pour 6 liters of water into a suitable container and add 10 ml of ammonia.
2. Stir the resulting solution for 5–10 minutes.
3. Place the sweater in a container with the prepared liquid.
4. Prepare the second composition: add 5 ml of hydrogen peroxide and 1 ml of ammonia per 1 liter of clean water. Stir the resulting mixture thoroughly.
5. Add 1 tbsp to the solution. l. vinegar.
6. Remove the wool item from the first solution and wring it out.
7. Transfer the sweater to a second container.
8. Wait half an hour.
9. Rinse and wring out the sweater.

However, there is another method for bleaching white woolen items with ammonia without using additional products. In this case, you need to mix 100 g of ammonia in 10 liters of warm water and soak the clothes in the resulting solution for half an hour. The next step is to machine wash woolen items with the addition of conditioner and an additional rinse. It is recommended to dry things in the fresh air or in a well-ventilated and warm room.

Soda - two options

Soaking in soda whitens the fur before your eyes. It will help rid your favorite sweater of yellow and gray tints; by the way, you can safely bleach synthetic items with soda and they will become as good as new! Fill a plastic bowl with water and dissolve baking soda in it. For 5 liters you will need 100 grams of sodium bicarbonate. Remember, you cannot use too hot water. Then immerse the sweater in the soda solution and wait a few hours. It is difficult to indicate a specific exposure time, observe the thing. Once you are satisfied with the result, take it out and rinse.

Important! If the water temperature during rinsing is higher than during bleaching, the wool will become matted. Therefore, without fear of being branded a pedant, purchase a water thermometer.

The second option for bleaching woolen items is pre-soaking before each wash. The process lasts 15 minutes, the amount of soda is 50 grams per 5 liters. If you are not lazy and pre-wash wool with soda treatment, you will never have to bleach.

Chalk

Chalk is a good way to whiten a white sweater at home. One voluminous sweater for an adult will require approximately half a kilogram of crushed chalk:

1. Grind the chalk to flour and pour it into a basin.
2. Pour warm water over the powder and stir.
3. Place a woolen hat or scarf in the white mixture and leave for one hour.

Chalk does not dissolve in water and settles at the bottom of the container, so it is necessary to stir the solution every 10 minutes. After finishing the bleaching procedure, drain the chalk liquid and rinse the yarn.

Lover of sour things

Wool is a true lover of sour things. The fabric is of animal origin, i.e. it contains proteins that deteriorate from contact with alkalis and easily tolerate the effects of acids. (For your information, soda is not an alkali, but an acidic salt.)

Therefore, feel free to use boric and citric acid as assistants to add freshness to faded or yellowed wool.

Proceed in the same way as in the soda method - soak the item, remembering to stir periodically. The correct calculation of boric or dry citric acid is 2 tbsp. spoons per 2 liters of water. Exposure – 3-4 hours.

Lemon acid

Citric acid will help you bleach a white woolen jacket at home. If it is not available, then you can use boric acid. These substances have similar properties:

1. Pour 5 liters of warm water into a basin and add 5 tbsp. citric acid.
2. Stir and submerge knitted clothing.

In this case, there are no strict guidelines for exposure time. The products should be removed when you are satisfied with the result. Typically this time is about 6-8 hours. Then the hat or mittens must be removed and rinsed thoroughly.

Advice. To bleach white knitted items evenly during the soaking period, you should periodically turn them from one side to the other.

Multifunctional peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide is a universal bleaching agent. Virtually any type of fabric lends itself well to bleaching with its help. You can bleach not only clothes, but also skeins of sheep wool from which you are going to knit smart socks. Moreover, the prototype of future clothing, i.e. yarn, you can even boil it briefly in a peroxide solution! Manipulation is unacceptable for finished wool products, but suitable for skeins. Whatever is supposed to sit will sit, and at the end you will get a clean white thread.

Don't experiment like that with sweaters and pullovers - you'll fail. Proceed with care:

1. Dilute 100 grams of 3% peroxide in 5 liters of water at 30 - 40 degrees temperature.
2. Immerse the item in the solution, stir occasionally.
3. Rinse in water at the same temperature.
4. Squeeze lightly, without twisting movements.
5. Dry on a flat surface, placing it on a terry towel.

Yarn bleaching

Knitting enthusiasts often face the problem of yellowing yarn. Correcting the situation with your own hands is quite simple.

Yarn must be bleached in water whose temperature does not exceed 50 degrees, otherwise the fibers of the material will become matted.

• Tie the skeins of yarn with white thread (not synthetic).
• Dilute neutral powder in water (one gram of powder per liter of water). The water temperature should not exceed 50 degrees, otherwise the wool will mat.
• Rinse the yarn and wring it out.
• For 10 liters of water, add: hydrogen peroxide (one-third of the weight of the material), 10% soda and the same amount of office glue.
• Soak the yarn in the solution for an hour. If the desired result cannot be achieved, leave the material for a few more hours.
• Rinse the material. Use a vinegar solution for this.

Bleach wool only in stainless steel or enamel containers.

You can knit a wonderful snow-white sweater from processed yarn.

If smells don't bother you

An excellent bleach and at the same time a stain remover is ammonia. You can buy it at the pharmacy and use it on any fabric. The product is economical, one bottle will last for a long time, because... Calculation of bleaching agent is 100 grams per 10 liters of water. And since you don’t need a bucket of water to bleach your hat or mittens, use 1 tablespoon per liter for pre-soaking and bleaching.

Next - everything is according to the scenario with acids and peroxide.

Important! A tablespoon of ammonia is an excellent addition to soda and peroxide and qualitatively enhances whitening.

So, if the smell does not bother you, use ammonia.

Review of specialized bleaches

Using the table, select the right product that will help bleach white woolen items with minimal risks at home.

What does the industry offer?

We have already talked about one industrial bleach, “Whiteness”. But the modern range of household chemicals is so diverse that it allows you to choose other bleaching products.

When purchasing, make sure that the package is marked “For wool”, otherwise you may fail.

Note! For woolen items, neither powders nor bleaches with biological additives that destroy protein compounds should be used. The protein in the fabric will suffer in the same way as the stains, and the fabric will deteriorate.

Choosing the expensive “Vanish Oxy” or the classic “Swan” is a matter entirely dependent on your preferences and budget. Try it, experiment, share your feedback.

Is it possible to bleach a wool sweater in a washing machine?

White woolen items look amazing, but if not properly stored and cared for at home, they turn yellow. Bleaching will help save your favorite sweater. There are many products for wool with different compositions and characteristics. Some bleaches are suitable for use in the washing machine. Manufacturers promise excellent results if you follow the instructions for use. For a better effect, clothes can be pre-soaked briefly in bleach and then machine washed on a delicate cycle. Add detergent to the washing powder to obtain the desired result. It is important not to overexpose the sweater in bleach and not to overdo it with the amount.

Carefully follow the directions on the product packaging to avoid damaging the fabric!

A little about soap

The laundry soap, beloved by housewives of the older generation, cannot be used to bleach woolen items at home. Soap contains a large number of different alkalis, and greatly damages the fabric.

It is also not used for washing wool; it is better to use special shampoos, and if they are not available, use your own hair shampoo. And remember that wool is contraindicated:

• high temperature and boiling;
• twisting and intensive machine spinning;
• drying on a line or hanger (things are laid out on a flat surface).

Follow our tips when bleaching at home, and your white wool items will cause slight envy of others.

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How to bleach a wool white sweater?

As soon as it gets cold outside, you have to forget about light and comfortable summer clothes, because they won’t keep you warm when there’s snow outside. The ideal solution is clothing made of wool, because wool is a comfortable and practical material that can serve its owner for many years.

The only drawback of the material is that it needs proper care. A white wool sweater all the more requires good care, because after just a couple of washes it can turn gray or yellow. In addition, traces of sweat, dust and other contaminants may appear on the sweater, which urgently need to be removed.

Rules for washing woolen items at home

1. Study the information on the tag inside the product, the appropriate temperature, spin, bleach, hand wash or machine wash.
2. A temperature of 30 or less than 40 degrees or cold water is suitable. A sharp temperature change is not recommended - this leads to the product rolling.
3. Long soaking at home helps the threads stretch.
4. Do not rub or twist too much.
5. Use a liquid product, soap solution, foam. Bulk materials will make the fabric stiff.
6. In an automatic machine, use the hand wash or delicate cycle without spinning.
7. Dry clothes correctly: place them on a net or table. Do not use hangers. It is prohibited to leave the product near a battery or in direct sunlight. The item will lose color and shape.