[Winhes2]

This cream cotton suit was bought in the early 80s but never worn. Somehow along the way, at least a decade ago, it was stained. Several recent tries with stain removers have been unsuccessful. Seems to me my options are: wear only the pants; wear the suit regardless of the stain; alter it by curving that corner eliminating the stain; tie-dye the suit and wear it on outrageous occasions. Which of those, or alternatives, would you recommend?

 

[Charles Dana]

If the jacket is ever so slightly too long, perhaps you could have a tailor shorten the entire thing by one inch, thereby getting rid of most of the stained area.

What kind of stain-removal techniques have you attempted? Have you tried slathering a paste made of Oxyclean and water on the stain, and letting it sit for a couple of hours? That might work—but then you’d have to fuss around trying to rinse away the paste from just that corner of the jacket.

If you can’t get the stain out and the jacket isn’t long enough to tolerate being shortened by an inch, the only other option that would work for me would be to wear just the trousers. I’d never wear a jacket with a visible stain.

 

[drpeter]

The stain looks as though it takes up half an inch of the bottom of the jacket. I think Charles' advice about shortening the jacket is good. I'd suggest shortening it by exactly the amount required to eliminate that stain, It is the safest and easiest method to rescue this jacket. A loss of half an inch from the length of a jacket, especially a DB jacket (total length of 31", perhaps?), would be barely noticeable. Follow this with a good dry cleaning (if needed) and pressing -- you'll have a splendid new suit to wear, although a bit late for Easter, LOL

 

[eagle2250]

Has the coat been taken to a trusted professional dry cleaner to try removing the strain. When all else fails, it might be worth taking it to the people who do that sort of thing every day. Just a thought!

 

[Peak and Pine]

I’d never wear a jacket with a visible stain.

Well you obviously have never put on a light colored jacket, rolled around in the wet grass of the forest floor drunk on life, then got up and went for Sunday brunch with burrs, moss and pine sap stuck to you, as if you had a choice, so have you? Then watch your tongue.

Winhes, you're lucky the stain is where it is.
Cropping the bottom is the best solution, somewhat easy, comparitively, in that a DB is a straight hem line all the way around, unlike a single breast where you have to recreate the arc on each side of the jacket's opening. Pin it up and see if the length is still okay with you. Then cue up Soft Sell's Tainted Love and get jiggy wid it, 80's style.

 

[The Great Garbanzo]

While I like the tie dye option if you've never worn it in 40 years why not donate it?

Now my solution, if it were my suit, would be to carry a Styrofoam coffee cup in which you've let a bit slosh out of the top to imitate a leaker. If anyone were to notice the stain on the suit, first I'd question why they're looking in that direction, then act horrified as to "what just happened" from that darned coffee spill.

 

[drpeter]

Well you obviously have never put on a light colored jacket, rolled around in the wet grass of the forest floor drunk on life, then got up and went for Sunday brunch with burrs, moss and pine sap stuck to you, as if you had a choice, so have you? Then watch your tongue.

Winhes, you're lucky the stain is where it is.
Cropping the bottom is the best solution, somewhat easy, comparitively, in that a DB is a straight hem line all the way around, unlike a single breast where you have to recreate the arc on each side of the jacket's opening. Pin it up and see if the length is still okay with you. Then cue up Soft Sell's Tainted Love and get jiggy wid it, 80's style.

Glad to see the Peakster is in agreement with Charles and me on the bottom-cropping solution. Is Tainted Love music to trim jackets by?

 

[Peak and Pine]

Glad to see the Peakster is in agreement with Charles and me on the bottom-cropping solution. Is Tainted Love music to trim jackets by?

Tainted Love is the music to do anything by, the quintessential 80s tune, especially the mix ending with a cover of the Supremes Where did our love go.

 

[StephenRG]

Tainted Love is the music to do anything by, the quintessential 80s tune

A cover of a 1964 song, I note.

 

[215339]

If you really want to get rid of the stain, could send it off to Rave Fabricare for dry cleaning.

 

[Winhes2]

Thank you for these excellent suggestions.