Plain Or Patterned Fabrics For Clothes? Which Is Best? To look smart, match accessories, and prevent stains. Post 429.

A patterned fabric on a dress or blouse might clash with a patterned skirt or jacket or hat.

Surely a plain colour is best. Not always. Not if you wear clothes more than once and worry about stains. Even if you wear an item only once for special occasions, you don't want to walk around showing stains.

I had a lovely three-block, three-shade, satin dress in royal blue, dark turquoise and pale turquoise. I bought an offcut of royal blue satin. It was not large enough for a dress for a wedding. I went back (to Spotlight in Singapore) and my colour was discontued. So I bought two small pieces of fabric in other colours. I had the dress made by a dressmaker in Singapore. Fabulous. The dress fitted me and looked lovely, vibrant colours, and smart. 

Plain Stain! From Water

That was all good, I looked good at my event - until I washed my hands. I was in the ladies cloakroom. (Americans say restroom). The water splashes showed up as dark patches, like untidy stains. Horrible. Plain shows stains.

The same stain can happen when your clothes are splashed by any water. Drinking water. 

Wet hair after washing it. Wet hair after swimming. 

Rain. Wet puddles on the ground splashing on dress hems. 

Coffee Stains

I have also had white blouses which mysterisouly develop an irremovable brown stain on the cuffs or front. They are not noticed at the time. Only in the evening. I have tried to avoid wearing white to Indian restaurants. And ordered white dishes instead of brown curry.

However, the brown stains appeared on white blouses, not after not a meal, but after a mere coffee stop. 

White Clothes & Fabrics

A saucer is supposed to catch drops and drips from the underside of cups. Not just big puddles from spills, when you talk with your hands and knock over cups.

I started wondering whether more accients occur in Italy where Italians talk with their hands. At breakfast time when wide awake they drink coffee in lower strength from full size cups. After dinner, when chatting to others, inedbriated, they drink small cups of dark coffee to wake up. They drink espresso in tiny cups, which is shorter to sharder to knock over and contains less leiquid.

Meanwhile, what of the rest of us? My experience is that coffee cup often have a drip under the cup. You can see it if you wash up by hand.Stick cups in the dishwasher and you might not notice. If you are short of one style of coffee cup and keep washing it by hand, you need to check underneath. Lo and behold, a brown gieaway stain underneath the cup. Maybe that is where it can drip on the table top and catch your cuff if you lean with eldbows on the table. Or the front of your blouse as you lean forward to talk, or learn forward to look at the computer screen.

I conclude that white shows stains more than cream or beige. Plain colours show stains more than patterned colours. 

Cotton whites can be boiled to remove stains. Some stains can be removed with stain remover products, which might contain bleach or a different ingredient.

But plain colours of garments which must be hand washed, or with colours which run, risk gathering stains.

If you cannot remove a stain, what can you do? Cut or cover.

Cutting Ideas

Cut the garment in half to remove the hem. Turn the waist lenght jacket into a bolero. Turn the long shirt into a shorter shirt. Turn the stained button area into a buttonless jacket. Turn a shirt into a shorter shirt or a false front and collar to go under knitted jumpers, without adding bulk.

Cut off the cuffs. Dew the edge of the cuff inside. Make a long cuff into three quarter length. Or sleevelsss tank top. 

Covering Ideas

Cover the stained front, the front button area, with a jabot, a frill, like Scottish shirts. Or make a couple of frills in different colours for a holiday or at home. you can change one wwhich gets stained for another.

Or having a chnge of frill ensures you can wear in successive days but always wash out every night in case there's a stain you have not spotted, to catch it before it dries and sets firm, which is time consuming to remove and sometimes impossible to remove.

Cut off the stained arms. Dye them a darker colour until you find a colour which suits the garment and stains evenly. Then sew sleeves back on. (In theory you could dye just the sleeves, without cutting them off. Depends which is your best and quickest action, to tie and dye, or cut and dye separately, then sew back on.

Cut off part of the sleeve to make an open front slit sleeve.

Cover the stain with

1 A button

2 A tiny matching patch made from a piece cut from inside such as a wide hem or under a collar. .

3 A bought sew-on or iron on patch.

4 A satin rose made into a brooch by using a small secure safety pin.

5 A brooch.

6 Sew on sequins or mock pearl domed or spherical buttons.

7 Sew a line of horizontal, vertical, or diagonal braid. It could go a small distance to make a line, or a cross, an open diamond, a filled diamond, a five or six point star.

8 Draw. To cover a series of dots, use a permanent marker to draw double low arches in a series, such as an arc or alongated dotted triangle like a flock of birds.

Cover a whole area with an oblong, swuare or triangle, like a deliberate colour block design.

9 If you have a stain on only the jacket part of a suit, sew the same patch on the top and the skirt, to look like it is part of a co-ordinated design.

Wishing you every success with stain prevention and cutting and cover up cures.

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