Laundry disaster - heeellp!

[ryedalema]

Well - my OH yesterday insisted that I varnish our 2.75 year old's 'special steps' in our garden, with said tot. It was a mostly successful exercise..except I forgot to change her out of her 'special Daddy-bought clothes' which she was wearing for her swimming lesson later on. So, although she had her Charlie and Lola pinnie on, she has varnish all over her Peppa Pig trackie bottoms and hoodie (bit of a 'brand' princess our little monster). My OH has truly spat the dummy on this one - seems to think I've done it deliberately (as if!).

He straight away immersed all clothing in white spirits.

Today i had strict instructions to boil wash the white clothing and then the coloured clothing to try and get it all out.

Stupid me has boil washed the 'white-spirited' hoodie with some of our youngest's baby-gros and now they all stink of spirits. So....

- any ideas on how to get the smell out?

- is the white spirit 'smell' dangerous for our 4 month old's skin?

- any other ideas for removing the varnish (it doesn't seem to have budged)?

Oh blimey blimey blimey - what a stinky nightmare..

Help really gratefully received xxxxx

[Belle]

hi - not much to suggest - would have thought line drying would make a big difference, and then another one or even two boil washes (for all - babygros too) - that should do it in terms of the w hite spirits. for the varnish, you could try and see if you could get a specialist stain remover - stain devils type stuff, or something more heavy duty maybe. Might be worth trying somewhere like AJ Farmers?

[sanity girl]

My crafty solution (if you can afford it) would be to buy new replacement peppa pig trackie bottoms and hoodie and pretend that the boil wash worked, and follow belle's suggestions for the babygros. Good luck!

[ryedalema]

Ah Sanity Girl - I've tried that (and so has he). I've looked everywhere online and cannot find said items - close to same - but no bananas :'(

[Gubodge]

And next time he has a suggestion as foolish as having a two year old help with varnishing, tell him to do it himself, if he's so keen. 'Insisting' you do it and then blaming you for the resulting mess? Completely out of order.

[ryedalema]

Oh and Belle - looks like we think the same. The clothes are outside airing, and I've just bought the relevant Stain Devil - fingers crossed,

[ryedalema]

Thanks Gubodge - it's as if you were a fly on the wall last night. That's almost exactly what I said, but using slightly more fruity language.

[cate]

If you google white spirit on clothes it comes up with loads of information. There is a link to the moneysavingexpert.com site as well. Several people complained that by washing items in their machine then the drum ended up stinking of white spirit. So it seemed to be handwash and hang on line - lemon juice and baking soda was also mentioned.

[ryedalema]

Ah wonderful Cate - thank you.