My first TB bag Trajedy

[dorayme]

averted by some elbow grease and determination to not have a bad bag day.


I had the bright idea of planning a church youth trip for a local nascar speedpark location. The party was yesterday. All was going well until I flipped my Azalea MCB over for some reason as we were leaving at around 6 PM and observed a HUGE black grease stain on the bottom of my MCB!

I'm pretty sure I got it when Zuri refused to hold it on her lap while we cart raced around 11 AM. She claimed it to be heavy, though I toted it around all day with the Ultra Suede Strap Wrap feeling as though it was barely there. It was loaded with a full 16oz. water bottle, my regular purse contents, 1.9oz. spindle and 4 oz. roving and spun yarn. As mentioned before, my daughter is wimpy.

Needless to say I was tired from running around the park all day doing things I should not have been doing. So in the midst of getting the kids ready for bed and preparing for our Christmas service today at church I forgot the stain last night.

This morning when I was switching my purse contents to my Aubergine Little Swift I was reminded of the stain and flew into stain removal mode.

It was too painful to try to take pictures, I was for sure this was a ruined bag. But I diligently massaged in citrus degreaser before church. After church I continued with method dish soap, more citrus degreaser, and eventually greased lightening with washing it between each step and finally it came out! My MCB is now mostly dry and stain free. I can breathe a sigh of relief.

I can also say that the rigorous scrubbing and various solvents I used would have ruined a lesser bag, if not by pilling the fabric, by causing some of the fabric to discolor. My MCB may need a bit of nikwax to put back the water proofing, but otherwise there is no visible evidence that there was ever a grease incident.

This was WAY worse than the chai accident of the summer. But the cleanup proved to be only a few steps more. I don't recommend anybody try this at home just to test out how well grease can be removed from their TB bags, but with some tlc and care, it can be done.

Along this line. . . I love the black boot base of the Swifts and Little Swifts. And though I think the Cafe Bags look prettier with a continuous exterior color, I'm contemplating asking for a black base for the Cafe Bags on the '13 wish list. . .

[TOBaggirl]

You should keep Oxi and GooGone in the house. Both are fantastic for removing all kinds of stains and goo. :-) We always have it on hand and they both work. I always add a scoop of Oxi to the washing machine. You can mix a small batch of powder in a bowl with hot water( it only dissolves in hot water) and apply it directly to a stain, let it sit for a while. Then scrub it with an old toothbrush. Works great. Hope this helps for any future mishaps.

Goo Gone Products: In the home
OxiClean - Home Page

[marbenais]

I recommend the Oxi gel stick -- it even works on washed & dried ink & tomato sauce!