Save my linen suit

Arkady

OK, so I have a linen suit which has a wine (or maybe curry?) stain on it from a party some years past. Two trips to the dry cleaner have been to no avail.<br><br>Is the suit doomed, or do I have options? Like, could I die it?<br><br>I’m off to Singapore and the Philippines in a couple of weeks, and I want to do the pretentious plonker abroad thing.<br>

miss annie

You could dye it. As long as linen is untreated it will take Dylon washing machine dye. I recommend taking it somewhere like Borovick's, the fabric shop in Berwick St, they sell dye and will tell you honestly if it can be done. There is nothing they don't know about the various properties of fabric. If it's red wine you might be able to remove it with salt. Wet the stain and tip as much salt as possible on it. Leave for an hour so and gently brush off. Try a couple of times. I've had success with this on an old wine stain.

Toddlesocks

oh no what a shame.<div><br></div><div>Is it a big stain, where is it on suit ?<br><div><br></div><div>If it is a light colour you could try bleaching  the stain with lemon juice and salt, leave in the sun to dry, wash out with warm water pouring through the fabric not rubbing in. May need repeating several times.</div></div><div><br></div><div>Still possible to be a pretentious plonker with stains, may help add an air of eccentricity.</div>

Mirandola

Can't imagine Hemingway's linen suits were clean.

Detritus

Get a new suit.

Arkady

@Toddlesocks - It's a significant stain.  And as it evidently resulted from me sitting on something, it's not a stain that I can be proud of in public.<div><br></div><div>@Miss Annie - thank's for the tip, I will head over to this 'Borovicks' place on Wednesday and see if they can advise.</div>

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kreuzkav

Mirandola, he's not Hemingway in Cuba but heading to Singapore. He has to wear his suit clean.  Having a red stained ass is not how a proper English man acts there.

miss annie

Just reading 'Mrs Hemingway', and I dislike him more now than I did before.

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Mirandola

He could write.

ADGS

Fitzgerald could write. Hemingway could just type. 

Mirandola

Unfair. Ok, I'd save FSF over EH too, but EH is unfashionable and great in his own way.

ADGS

I like his six-word short story - beyond that, he bores me rigid. A mess of ingratitude, macho posturing and staccato sentences.

checkski

Agreed, ADGS. I liked A Moveable Feast when I was young. I was having my year in Paris, 60 years after EH, but much of it was unchanged. FSF has a chapter, but EH is patronising towards him. Many other characters are featured, amongst whom the extraordinary Gertrude Stein, plus many other Parisian artists and literati, and a fascinating picture of 20's Paris itself. Orwell's Down And Out In London And Paris was my other source. Much better writing, and a much nicer person.

Mirandola

I thought so too, and then suddenly something clicked and Hemingway became wonderful. Ridiculous, but wonderful. I like it when that happens. The world becomes better.