How to Salvage Smoke Damaged T-Shirts and Clothing
There are many items that simply can’t be saved from smoke damage. Luckily, t-shirts clothing doesn’t have to be one of them. Depending on the degree of smoke damage to an item of clothing, it may be able to be salvaged by giving it some special care.
The first thing to do is to figure out which items of clothing can be salvaged and which ones can’t. There may be a few pieces that are so heavily damaged that no amount of care can save them. If the entire garment is covered in soot and it’s difficult to tell what the item originally looked like, it may be too late to save that particular garment.
Clothing that has light smoke damage may benefit from a spray with a fabric odor spray. These are often made with cornstarch and lift odors out of the fabric and allow them to evaporate along with the liquid in the spray. Try spraying lightly-damaged items and then washing them with a color-safe bleach to remove the odor of smoke.
Some clothing may have a little more smoke damage but may just need a vigorous washing in hot water to make it look the way it did before. A garment that has a strong smoky smell but that doesn’t have a lot of soot on it may be salvaged by washing the item on the fastest washing cycle in hot water. Use a heavy-duty detergent and use a pre-treatment soak before putting it into the laundry.
For items that are in worse condition, try pre-treating the item for a longer period of time and then rinsing the items several times before washing them. It may be necessary to wash these items three or four times to remove the soot and the smell of smoke from them. To help the smell come out of the clothing more easily, add a half a cup of baking soda in with the washing detergent. This will help to absorb some of the smell and to wash it away. Don’t dry the clothing until you’ve gotten out all of the soot that you can.
Chlorine bleach is helpful for whites that have smoke damage. This is an effective way to get both the smell of smoke and the residue of it out of white clothing. Soak the items in bleach in the bathtub or in a sink. After a few minutes, rinse the bleach from the garments and make sure that most of the soot has been rinsed away. After this step, the items can be put into a washing machine with a little more bleach added to the load if needed.
If the clothing has severe damage to it but you want to try to salvage it, try a fire restoration service. These services specialize in restoring smoke and fire damaged items to their best possible condition. There are also some dry cleaners that can provide smoke-damage care to clothing. There is an ozone treatment process that can get small particles of smoke out of clothing without damaging the fibers. Call local dry cleaners and find one that can provide this treatment.
Celebrities Recently Spotted Wearing Messages on T-Shirts
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere wants you to Save the Whales. On October 28th Hayden was at the “Save the Whales” rally in Washington. Hayden’s was wearing a regular fitting white t-shirt with the phrase “Save the Whales Again” with a large blue whale tail. For more information on the group visit Save the Whales Again and the Save the Whales Store to buy a Save the Whales t-shirt for $25. [Image Source: Celeb Slam]
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck was spotted wearing a heather grey “City Sports” t-shirt with yellow lettering from non other than City Sports for $19.99. [Image Source: Just Jared]
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen was wearing an red Adidas brand Hungary t-shirt at the Rome Film Festival on October 25th to promote his movie Good. [Image Source: Celebitchy]
Tori Spelling
Tori Spelling was out picking pumpkins in October wearing a stylish brown sporty t-shirt with Salt Lake 78. [Image Source: Celebitchy]
Shia Labeouf
Shia Labeouf was spotted wearing a Dune t-shirt. For those of you who somehow missed Dune it was an award winning science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert in 1965 that was made into a movie “Dune“ by David Lynch in 1984. It is a little surprising Shia has the Dune t-shirt since Shia wasn’t born until 1984. [Image Source: Just Jared]
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton seems to be wearing a message on her shirt every week. There were three Paris Hilton t-shirt sightings recently including “I Love My Pink Life” which is a white t-shirt with large shiny pink letters that say “I Love My Pink Life” The next sighting was Paris wearing a white baby doll t-shirt with a pink drawing of her dog and text Paris Hilton. The last Paris Hilton t-shirt is a red tank top bedazzled with the text “talk to you never”. [Image Sources: “Talk to you never” - Celebslam, “Paris’ Dog” - Celebitchy, “I Love My Pink Life” - Socialite Life]
Hayden Christensen
Hayden Christensen was seen voting in Los Angeles wearing a black t-shirt with Martin Luther King Jr. and the phrase “I Have a Dream”. [Image Source: Hayden Christensen]
Sean Combs - Diddy
Diddy was out trying to get people to vote while wearing his “Vote or Die” t-shirt made famous in the 2004 election. [Image Source: Spash News Online]
Pauly Shore
Pauly Shore hasn’t done much for years but for some reason the paparazzi still take pictures of him. Pauly was out to vote and was seen wearing a t-shirt that said Pauly for President [Image Source: Celebitchy].
What Do The Size Numbers On A T-Shirt Mean?
“On one of my size small T-Shirts, it says 34-36. What does that mean?” This is a common T-shirt related question. When we are shopping for things and find different types of sizing methods, it can be very confusing. Suddenly, buying a simple small T-shirt has gone from a quick errand to a head-scratching puzzle. By understanding a little about how this particular sizing method works, you will be able to save yourself time and confusion.
There are a variety of different ways to size clothing and it often varies from place to place and manufacturer to manufacturer. The most common method of sizing is Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, Extra Extra Large and so on. It is usually further divided into adult sizes and youth sizes. For certain items of clothing, different sizing methods are even used for men and women. It is very useful on the occasions that you come across T-shirts with number sizes to know exactly what they mean.
The number sizing method is actually very simple. It is basically the measurement around the chest in inches of the typical person who would wear that size. A size small would fit a 34 to 36 inch chest. A medium fits 38 to 40 inches. Large fits 42 to 44 inches. Extra large fits 46 to 48 inches. Extra extra large fits 50 to 52 inch chests. A triple X T-shirt would fit someone whose chest measures 54 to 56 inches.
However, when you are choosing a T-shirt, remember that there is always a certain amount of shrinkage to consider. All tees should be expected to shrink about 3-5% in width. The average shrinkage for the length of a T-shirt is 8-12%. Therefore, you should definitely buy one size larger if you are on the higher end for the chest measurements for your size. If you are on the lower end of these measurements, you may be okay getting a tee in the size you are supposed to fit into. Another good piece of advice when shopping for T-shirts is to familiarize yourself with common brands and how they fit. With time you will learn which ones tend to run a little large or are more fitted than other brands. This will help you make the right choice in sizes.
The great thing about custom T-shirts is that there is rarely a sizing problem. Often when you go to a retail store and find a shirt that you just have to have, it is sold out in your size. You may need to check other stores and waste a lot of time tracking down that perfect tee. By having the perfect T-shirt custom-made, you can be sure that it is the perfect size, color, style, cut, quality and design for you. With the endless choices you have in custom-made T-shirts, you can wear the absolute perfect T-shirt everyday if you choose to.
Get your perfectly sized custom-made T-shirt today and see what a great fit really is.