Can I use coffee to cover up a coffee stain on a wool coat?

Name: Liza

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Message: I have an off-white wool coat (70% wool, 30% nylon) that I spilled coffee on. I've had the coat professionally cleaned, but the stain won't even fade. So, I'm wondering what would happen if I put the whole coat in a bath of coffee. Could it possibly make the whole coat darker (which would actually be nice...)? What is my biggest "risk"? I've read your advice on dying wool and I'm just not sure I'm up for the challenge, nor could I figure out a pot big enough for the coat.

You might want to try some more coffee stain removal techniques first. Dry cleaning is not always the best way to remove a stain. The How Stuff Works site claims on their page "How to Remove Coffee Stains" that rubbing alcohol (also known as isopropyl alcohol, or isopropanol) will remove coffee stains. I don't know whether or not it is true, but alcohol on off-white wool seems pretty harmless to me, as long as you do not scrub at the stain. Scrubbing at the stain too roughly will cause the surface of the wool fabric to become damaged, so be careful. The site recommends using water first, which is a good idea. Water is the most powerful solvent known, more powerful than any of the organic (petroleum-based) solvents used for dry cleaning. Gentle exposure to water should not harm wool; what harms wool is too much physical manipulation (rubbing or agitation, especially when wet), or rapid temperature changes from hot to cold or the reverse. There are also commercial stain removers that are claimed to work to remove coffee stains, by the use of enzymes, and to be safe for use on wool. I have not tried any, so I don't know how well they work, but in your situation I think I might want to try one of them.

Reproducing the coffee stain on the entire coat is not a bad idea. You will probably not be able to get the color to be smooth and even, but it sounds as though you might prefer varying shades of brown to a brown spot on an off-white background. You didn't boil the coat to make the stain in the first place; your goal would be to reproduce exactly what happened to the stained part, as much as possible, rather than using coffee as the best dye that it can be. If the coffee you apply as dye fades, the original coffee stain probably will, too, which may be fine with you. Of course, since that spot will get a double dose of coffee, it may still be darker than the rest of the coat. It will take a lot of coffee to soak the entire coat; estimate the volume of the coffee you spilled, and the amount of the coat that got covered, and do the arithmetic to see how much more coffee you would need in order to repeat the stain over the whole coat. This might take twenty pots of coffee! By the time you've brewed the last pot, the first pot will long since have gone cold.

The biggest risks would be that the coat smells strongly of coffee afterwards; that the coffee would bleed onto other things, seeping out of the coat, if it becomes damp; or that you might cause the surface of the wool to felt by too much agitation or by rapid temperature changes.

You can wash the coffee out well enough to prevent bleeding from being a problem, especially if you dry clean the coat again after you're done. The scent of coffee will persist even after a number of washings; whether that's a problem depends on how you feel about the smell of coffee. (Try putting your nose right against the spot, to see whether you can detect the smell of coffee at all. It will be far stronger when it's in the entire coat.) I don't know how well dry cleaning will remove the scent of coffee. To prevent damage while you apply the coffee, and when you wash the excess out afterwards, you can be very careful to avoid agitation or rapid temperature changes. You could try using your bathtub both to apply the coffee and to do the repeated washing that will be necessary afterwards. (If your bathtub is made of some material other than porcelain, such as fiberglass or acrylic, please test it first in a small spot to see whether hot coffee will stain it, too.)

I would like to know whether you decide to try staining your coat all over with coffee, and if so, how it turns out. Do try more stain removal first, though. Good luck.

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Posted: Friday - December 10, 2010 at 08:32 AM

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