07/14/2021

Removing Blood from a Silk Dress

I am not a stain removal expert but by listening to our managers and asking questions, I have learned a lot over the years about stain-removal and fabric. So, I know that blood is fairly easy to remove on cotton and polyester. I also know dealing with any sort of spill or stain on silk can be quite challenging because silk is a particularly delicate fabric that can easily discolor or chafe.

In May, our Chatham Downs location in Chapel Hill received a 5-star Yelp review from an extremely pleased customer who brought in a designer silk dress with a blood stain. If removing blood from a silk dress were an Olympic Sport, the degree of difficulty would be quite high. “The difficulty is in the fact that most blood spotting agents contain ammonia,” explained Tim Rolle, Manager of several Raleigh-area A Cleaner World locations, and the earner of the 5-star review. “and they cause color change on silk. Also, any brushing or tamping of a blood stain on silk can easily chafe the fabric.” The success rate on removing blood from a non-silk fabric is quite high; it is much lower on silk.

As soon as Tim saw the dress, he knew he needed to proceed with caution. Choosing his spotting agent carefully, a special non-ammonia-based spotting formula because protein spotting agents with ammonia will cause color-change on silk fabric, he spent two days carefully working on the stain while staying in touch with the customer to communicate his plan and progress.

In the review, the customer writes, “His level of communication and care way exceeded my expectations. Timothy was able to remove the stain and he was genuinely as pleased with the results as I was. I cannot thank him enough for his excellent level of service.”

Well done, Tim. Of course, I asked him for before and after photos – and he didn’t have any. That’s because to Tim, it’s all part of a day’s work.