Yellow Chalk, White Fabric: A little of what not to do, and how to fix it!

Hey Friends!

So, I had a dilemma.  I was using this pristine white fabric for a project that I am still working on, but when I was first tracing the pattern onto the fabric I couldn't see the white chalk, so I chose to use yellow chalk.  The fabric has a wonderful, intricate pattern on it, (white on white of course) and I tried to be really careful to mark only the "wrong side".  I was trying to squeeze a Pendrell blouse out of only one yard of fabric, and because I had to get tricksy with the cutting and folding and laying out of my pieces, I ended up marking the "right side" on two of my pieces.  (It probably didn't help that I was marking and cutting at two in the morning...) 

Anywho, I was stuck trying to figure out how to get yellow chalk out of my beautiful white fabric.  I had some scraps left over, so I decided to try a few different things, and luckily, I took pictures so I could share with you. 

So with much pride, and very little humbleness, I introduce... my first tutorial!

Working on a Pendrell Blouse

If you look closely, you can see the white pattern on the fabric.

My yellow Tailor's chalk.

Step One: Yellow chalk on white fabric.

Step Two:  I tried to use a toothbrush on the fabric, to try and brush out the chalk.
I saw this tip on the internet.  No such luck. 

Step Three: I even tried (on a different scrap) dipping the entire thing in non-diluted bleach.  Again, no dice.

Step Four:  I got my fabric wet and scrubbed on the chalk mark with the toothbrush.  Small progress.

Step Five:  I added a little Dawn Pure.  I happened to have this, because it is what I use for dishes, and in hind-sight, the pure (with no added coloring) is probably the best choice anyways.  Scrubbing with the toothbrush, Dawn, and a little moisture showed definite progress in getting the chalk out!

Step Six:  After seeing that I was able to get the yellow out (at least I thought so), I decided to see if ironing the scrap would a) not ruin the texture, and b) make sure that the stain was out and that it didn't set any color into the scrap.  I couldn't see the fabric well enough to tell if the stain was out while the fabric was wet.

Success!!!  The iron dried the scrap, there didn't appear to be
even a trace of the yellow, and the fabric texture was the same as when I began.

Suggestions that I would give...  Well, first I would obviously recommend that you not mark your white fabric, on the "right side" at two in the morning!  But, if you are as silly as I am, I would suggest trying a scrap first!  

When researching on the internet, prior to my little experiment, I found several fixes for several different types of chalk.  I am using the tailor's chalk triangles, and I don't think they are wax... I'm not really sure.  But either way, the other suggestions I found online didn't work (other than dry cleaning... I didn't try that one).  But this method seemed to work well!

Hope this helps at least someone out!  I know I learned something and had fun in the progress!

xo