Fashion Repair: Rust Stain Removal

Rust stains on clothes can be very unsightly. They are also quite hard to hide or camouflage. Recently, I tested out a simple way to remove them using an item that can easily be found in most Filipino kitchens: calamansi.

I own a pair of cotton shorts that, for the longest time, had this embarrassingly bright rust stain on the left front side. I’m not exactly sure what compelled me to take action after years of just ignoring it and pretending it didn’t exist, but recently I decided to finally do something about it.

Here’s what I did, based on some online research:

First, I laid the article of clothing on a flat surface. I then placed folded tissue paper just right beneath the affected spot.

I took two pieces of calamansi from the fridge and sliced each one in half. I squeezed the halves onto the rust spot and saturated the entire area, allowing the juice to soak into the cloth. I then let it sit for about 15 minutes.

I had the pair washed afterwards. When I got it back, I was very pleased to see that the stain had faded quite a bit, though not entirely.

I researched further and learned that it might have worked better if I had left the shorts aside for an entire day before washing it. Next time I also plan on sprinkling salt over the soaked area, which I read helps.

In the meantime, I am quite happy with the results I got. We happen to have a lot of calamansi in our household so I am definitely not giving up on this experiment. We shall see what happens next.