Method #1: Washing soda or baking soda: Soak your vintage and/or yellowed whites in the washing machine, bathtub or large wash sink for 24 hours with one cup of washing soda or baking soda. Use the hottest water that your fabrics can withstand. Use patience.
Bleach is the answer. Lots of it. Let your clothes sit in a bucket full of water and a heavy concentration of bleach for 1-2 hours and it will whiten noticibly.
Soak the fabric in a dilution of lemon juice and water ( freshly-squeezed or bottled juice doesn't matter, here). For very heavily yellowed fabric, a 1:1 ratio might be necessary, but I have gotten good results with 3:1, water to juice. Soak overnight. Without rinsing, hang outside, on a bright day to dry.
If linens are yellowed, add 1/2 cup oxygen bleach to 2 to 3 gallons of water (do not use chlorine bleach, which can weaken fibers). Gently agitate by hand, then let soak until the cloth appears white (this may take several hours). Rinse with cold water.
Fill a large bucket or basin with warm water. Add one cup of distilled white vinegar to the water and mix well. Place the yellowed garments into the solution and let them soak for 3-4 hours. After soaking, rinse the clothes with cold water and wash them as usual.
Distilled white vinegar is another remarkable option to make yellowed white shirts white again. Not only does it have brightening properties, but it also neutralizes odors in fabrics. You can use it as a bleach-free pretreatment or as an additive in a standard wash cycle.
Oxiclean or any brand of powdered oxygen-based bleach will whiten T-shirts that have turned yellow or gray. The trick is to let the yellowed shirts soak in the solution for several hours or overnight.
When certain chemicals on your clothing react with oxygen, they can leave behind yellow or brown stains. These stains often come from substances that weren't visible at first—like traces of white wine or perspiration. How to prevent it: Always launder or dry-clean your clothing thoroughly before storing it.
Add ¼ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach to 1 gallon cool water and stir. Add the shirts, fully submerging them, and let them soak for 5 minutes. Drain the soaking solution and then wash the shirts in hot water using detergent and ⅓ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach. Finally, let them air dry.
To remove set in stains – especially from old baby clothes – I use a plastic bucket or dishpan, the hottest water the fabric will stand (enough to submerge garment completely), and equal parts Dawn liquid (original blue Dawn) and Clorox 2 powdered bleach (usually 1/4 cup of each).
Lemon juice breaks down stains, brightens whites, and provides a fresh result. Whereas vinegar and baking soda stain remover are quite effective for light-colored fabrics and for removing detergent residues.
For overall whitening, dissolve one cup of baking soda in a basin of hot water and soak for at least one hour before laundering. Follow up with a distilled white vinegar rinse in your washing machine to enhance the effect.
→ In a bowl or spray bottle, mix 3 tablespoons of dish soap, 3 tablespoons of baking soda, and ½ cup of hydrogen peroxide. Generously apply your whitening cocktail to the yellow stain and let it sit for an hour. Wash the garment in cold water as usual and dry.
Oxidation is a chemical reaction that happens between substances when they are left on fabrics. (and then exposed to heat or sunlight). Your garments may appear clean when they are put away, but as they sit, these substances react to whatever has been left on the garment and create those obnoxious yellow stains.
Simply pour a small amount of detergent directly onto the stain and leave it for five minutes, before rinsing it clean under a cold tap. You can then wash the item as usual. As an alternative, you can also try making a paste out of regular dry detergent and water, dabbing this onto the stain, and leaving it overnight.
For yellow age stain, the most effective stain remover is a hydrogen peroxide solution, which is available in commercial form as stain removers under brand names such as OxiClean. The main ingredient in most of these stain removers is a solidified form of hydrogen peroxide, combined with surfactants and detergents.
Use vinegar. Like baking soda, you can use distilled white vinegar as either a bleach-free pretreating solution or as an additive to a standard wash cycle. White vinegar is an acidic solution that can be used to brighten the appearance of white fabrics.
Vinegar is an effective natural remedy for removing rust stains from clothes. Create a solution by mixing white vinegar and water in equal parts in a bowl or basin. Soak the stained garment in the vinegar solution for about 1-2 hours, ensuring that the stain is fully submerged.
Oxygen-based bleach like OxiClean™ Versatile Stain Remover is gentle on vintage or fragile fabrics such as lace and tulle, and even old, set-in stains can be removed or significantly lightened to brighten a white item and get it ready to wear for the big day.
One more method for how to brighten colored clothes is to use vinegar to help remove detergent residue that causes fading. If you have a top-load washer, just put ½ cup of vinegar in the drum before adding your clothes. For front-load washers, you can put the vinegar in your softener dispenser space.
Method: Apply fresh lemon juice directly onto the yellow stains and spread the garment out in the sun for several hours. The citric acid in the lemon juice, enhanced by the UV rays from the sun, will naturally bleach the stains. After sun exposure, rinse with water and wash the garment as usual.
Distilled white vinegar, lemons, baking soda, bluing, and sunshine are all non-toxic alternatives to bleach. To determine which works best for your clothing, experiment on a small area before using the substance on your entire garment. And remember, don't use these methods on colored clothes.