October 28, 2020
Yellow to White: Whitening Yellowed Linen, Part II
A couple weeks ago, we chatted about this yellowed and stained piece of linen that I was freshening up and (hopefully) bringing back to white.
Many of you wrote in with some great suggestions for whitening old linens – if you are missed that article and you’re looking for ways to whiten linens, make sure you read the previous article and the comments.
After boiling with cream of tartar, which can be a successful way to remove stains and some types of markings from linen, I plunged into the Buttermilk Adventure detailed in the previous article.
You see, this was an experiment of sorts. I had read about using buttermilk to whiten linens in older books. I just wanted to see how it would work. Curiosity and all…
And guess what? After a 36-hour soak, I conceded that buttermilk doesn’t really work. It made perhaps a mild dent in the yellowing, and it may have lightened the stain a fraction, but not really enough to notice at a glance. So I decided to move on.
I have successfully struck the Buttermilk Soak from my bucket list.














