apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I keep a box or two of Shout wipes on hand for minor accidents.

Maybe there should be a hyphen in No-Sweat. I had to read it three times before I realized it wasn't about sweat stains.

Me, too! There definitely needs to be a hyphen in there... "No Sweat Stain" = no perspiration stain.

Me three!

I was wondering what kind of parties people are throwing where sweat stains are an issue.

I wish people still got as dressed up for parties as in the image... sigh...

Fixed it. No-sweat!

Me too, Lilli. :[
A friend recently put on a "Cocktail Party" and the invites said "Dress to impress"
I wore the fanciest dress that I own, and when I got there nobody else was dressed up!
Sigh.

It's such a downer when no one participates in the theme. What a buzzkill.

In relation to the stains: when someone spills at my parties, I always say, "It's not a party til someone spills!" Then they don't feel so embarassed and everyone just moves on. I always stock up on paper towels and keep one roll in every room, out of the way but so that people can see it. I know when I spill at a someone's house, I want to clean it up myself, I don't want someone else cleaning up my mess.

My favorite red wine stain remover is Wine Away - http://www.wineaway.com/

After an unfortunate incident involving red wine on a brand new white shirt, I picked up a bottle of this at my local Cost Plus World Market and it completely worked on the first try.

I also love Oxyclean for stain removal... Making an Oxyclean paste and letting it sit for a day or two can work like magic.

Great topic! I'd love to hear others stain removal tricks...

White wine helps remove red wine from a carpet - a good reason to have both on hand at parties!

And back to the sweat mis-reading, I discovered that soaking a t-shirt with pit stains in hydrogen peroxide (with a little soap to loosed things up) totally works. You just have to be patient and let it soak overnight in a bowl. Might work on coffee and red wine too - totally worth a try.

loosen, not loosed...

Sadly I think it's all too common to not dress up for a nice party even when told in the invite, but also, leaving it vague may make people not even bother.

I'd say, something like suit and tie/ coctail dress required, although it may cause people to not show up at all, but at least it isn't vague. :-)

As for stain removal, I'll have to try and remember to check some of these solutions out for I have some of these very stains to try and get rid of.

Be careful with hydrogen peroxide... I've had it turn things yellow before. I think it needs to be diluted pretty well.

I find that club soda and vinegar are both great for stain removal. I've been experimenting with making my own stain remover for carpets and so far it works really well. It's just distilled water, club soda, a bit of vinegar, a dash of OxiClean and a squirt of castille soap (I use Dr. Bronner's) and it works like a dream!!

is that a Thelwell illustration? I love his ponies.

"I wish people still got as dressed up for parties as in the image... "

They do - when the event is designated "Black-Tie" or "Formal"

I agree - It's fun to put on the tuxedo and go out for an evening like this.

Woolite works

Invite gorgeous women...this makes everyone dress better...

I have a fantasy that people still dress up in D.C. Is that true?

The brunettes make me want to get my hair coiffed. And smoke cigarettes at the end of a long stick.

We had "black tie preferred" communicated for our wedding reception because I was trying to be gentle about it (I didn't want to compel anyone to rent anything they didn't already own). I even told my bridesmaids if they wanted to change out of their matching dress into personal clothing for the reception I totally understood. One of them changed into a T-shirt and jeans. (Fortunately, the other bridesmaids saw my face and got her into a dress right quick.) *sigh* I never wanted to be THAT bride.

This post is so timely. I recently moved and ended up with a combination of red marker stains and dirt on my cream colored fabric couches from the moving truck. I've been trying to decide what to do about them ever since. Any other suggestions?

tpgirl --

Call Coit - and send the bill to the movers.