Ink Stain Removal

Today I though I would share a tip for removing ink stains. The other day my husband had an ink pen leak in his pocket.

We both thought these pants were a lost cause, but me being me I thought I would try to salvage them. I remembered reading that ink could be removed using alcohol and a quick google search confirmed this, but also said it depended on the type of ink pen. Well that pen was long gone so who knows what kind it was ,but again what did I have to lose.  So I got some cotton swabs and alcohol and had at it!

It was definitely doing something even if it was just making the stain bigger! If you try this make sure to have something behind the stain to absorb the ink because it does run!  I got a few ink blots on the inside pocket before I realized what happened. I ended up using a paper towel in front of a plastic baggie just to make sure I wasn't transferring the stain somewhere else. I just kept dabbing on alcohol and blotting it with paper towels.

It was getting lighter but still not good enough. So I poured a cupful of alcohol on it and let it set about 5 minutes then blotted again and let it dry.

Much better but still there.  Not wanting to give up I decided I would give it one last try so again I dabbed on alcohol and blotted with a clean paper towel and let dry.  And it worked!!!!

I couldn't believe it but it got the ink out! Not sure if it works on other fabrics or with all pens but these cotton khakis are good as new. If we have another mishap on a different fabric I will definitely give this a try and report back!