Thread: HELP! My corset is rusting after washing it!!!!

I wore it to some stupid show on Friday, and the people on stage thought it would be funny to spray the audience with fake blood!!!!

It's my only proper corset, and its white. So i needed to seriously soak it, and then the weather got bad and it rained, so it didn't air dry as quickly indoors and now the fasteners have rusted and it has bled a bit into the white fabric.

I have to wear it again on Wednesday, July 1st. Are there any quick fixes for this? If i wash it again and make sure it dries quickly, will that work?

~Muse

WARNING

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Rust stains can be removed if you are lucky by treating with an acid, because rust (Iron oxide) becomes water soluble when acid is applied to it.

Don't heat treat it i.e put it in a dryer or iron it, if you do you're stuffed the stain will be permanent, likewise don't use chlorine bleach for the same reasons, but if you haven't done this you may be able to remove the stain.

One of the best solutions for rust stains on clothing is lemon juice (citric acid) or the stronger white vinegar (acetic acid). Both of these are mild acids which will help dissolve the iron oxide compound. Place some absorbent white paper towels beneath the stain to act as a blotter, then cut a lemon in half and soak the stain with fresh lemon juice (alternatively, bottled lemon juice will also work). Leave the garment (with the paper towel blotter still beneath the stain) out in the sun to dry and the rust stain should gradually disappear. Wash according to the usual instructions.

You may also find comercial rust removal cleaning agents in your local supermarket or traditional hardware store but they will all use some form of acid treatment, obviously you should check on a small unobtrusive area first if possible as the acid effects may damage the fabric.

Hope that helps

Thats such bad luck- They are surely supposed to warn you if theyre going to spray anything into the audience let alone something that will stain you- what if you were allergic to an ingredient in the blood??
Most corset makers will tell you that you should never wash a corset- The steel boning is suitable for dry cleaning but you should not get it wet for prolonged periods of time- Also a lot of the stiffer fabrics used for corsetry have a treatment to keep them firm which doesnt fare well in the wet- it may shrink or it may just got floppy! In future (though I hope this never happens to you again!) you would probably have to take it to the dry cleaners, otherwise you will be writing your corset off either way. Obviously this doesnt help you much in your current situation so sorry about that!
Best of luck with this.
XXX

Have you contacted the organisers for compensation? I know that may seem a bit petty, but if you have to replace the corset it's not cheap, the least they could do would be pay for the dry cleaning.

Originally Posted by Rose De Vine

Have you contacted the organisers for compensation? I know that may seem a bit petty, but if you have to replace the corset it's not cheap, the least they could do would be pay for the dry cleaning.

I second that! if they gave no warning then your on pretty good grounds for a complaint!
I always find there's usually someone who ends up spilling their drinks down my corset
It may not be much help on your current situation but although white (and most lighter coloured ones for that matter) corsets are beautiful, it may be best to invest in a darker coloured one if you buy anymore, as most spills wont be quite as visible!

Lilly x

Oh that's really rotten! I agree with all of the above. Dry cleaning is best on corsets for all sorts of reasons. You might've got away with it if it had dried really fast (although I wouldn't have expected the busk to have rusted quite so readily).

I totally agree with chasing up the organisers though! It's one thing spraying the audience with water or something (although I'd be ticked off enough at that if I was dolled up) but to spray something that stains really isn't on!

Untreated steel rusts very easily, most better quality corsets will use coated steel in some form or another specifiaclly to reduce the chance of rust but wherever the steel has been cut there's a good chance that the ends will rust there's nothing you can do about this short of unpicking the corset and individually coating the steel inserts (yes I realise it's not practicle to do this).

Steel will oxidise whenever humidity gets above arround 30% (occasionally with really poor steel at lower humidity) Corset steel tends to be of slightly higher quality and so will need higher humitity to oxidise, the worst thing you can possibly do is leave steel in a warm moist enviroment (like stuck inside a washing machine for a couple of days) becuse those are ideal oxidation conditions, If you must wash something with steel inside it you should dry it as rapidly as possible in the open air as this is the least likely to cause rapid rusting.

However in the event that rusting occurs the method I suggested earlier should work.

By the way I'm an engineer by training so when it comes to steel I know what I'm talking about
Women on the other hand just leave me

Originally Posted by White Knight

One of the best solutions for rust stains on clothing is lemon juice (citric acid) or the stronger white vinegar (acetic acid). Both of these are mild acids which will help dissolve the iron oxide compound. Place some absorbent white paper towels beneath the stain to act as a blotter, then cut a lemon in half and soak the stain with fresh lemon juice (alternatively, bottled lemon juice will also work). Leave the garment (with the paper towel blotter still beneath the stain) out in the sun to dry and the rust stain should gradually disappear. Wash according to the usual instructions.

You may also find comercial rust removal cleaning agents in your local supermarket or traditional hardware store but they will all use some form of acid treatment, obviously you should check on a small unobtrusive area first if possible as the acid effects may damage the fabric.

Hope that helps

I'm going to try the lemon juice of vinegar! THANK YOU! I'll let you know hot it turns out.
I did wash it with bleach... because of the fake blood splatter (stupid freakshow). But i did not use heat. So hopefully its not too late.

x

~Muse

So long as the bleach was before it rusted you should be ok, after the rust stains appear bleach will fix them permanently and I don't think there's anything that will work then

IT WORKED!!!! WOO HOO!!!

Thank you!

~Muse