My most prestigous degree: A Master in Silly Putty

Yes, this IS my proudest achievement of late. Only a dedicated mom would scour the internet late into the night to figure out how to remove Silly Putty from her son's berber polyester fleece pullover and only the most determined would persevere through several rounds on the Silly Putty website to move from "puttyhead" to "Master of Silly Putty" and then actually print out the diploma on a color printer and frame it. My real college diploma? ....have no idea where it is, but the important thing here is that the silly putty came out with a good dose of Goof Off and hot water.

I can honestly tell you I have spent more time analyzing how to remove stains and assess shrinkage than would be considered sane by most standards. This is because I HAVE to. I am the mother of 2 children AND I design & manufacture girl's clothing. I love clothing, especially kids' clothing because they look so darn cute in it. Truth is, my ship has sailed so I live vicariously through my children. Stains interfere with the value and enjoyment of our clothes, so I am going to share some tips that I have tested and really work:

1. Treat the stain as soon as possible. I swear by Oxyclean Gel (the blue stuff you can get at Target or anywhere). Glob it on thick and let it fester for as long as a few days if the stain is set pretty bad. I have been know to repeat treatments as many as 3 times and finally achieve success. Don't use bleach. It doesn't do nearly as well and you can end up ruining even your own clothes if it splatters.
2. Machine wash COLD and LINE DRY anything you care about. Clothes won't fade or shrink and stains are less likely to set if not tossed in the dryer. Plus the environment will thank you. Use the few extra moments in the laundry room to eat the chocolates you hid from the kids.
3. For berry stains- use hot water. For blood stains -use cold water. To get things off your walls (if you have a boy you will experience this!) use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Things that don't come out: highlighter & Sharpie pens.  Grease, grass, bananas, ink, chocolate and lots of offending things are easily removed with the above steps.

I hope these tips help new and not-so-new parents save a lot of headaches. It took me years and trial & error to find what works and I've learned so much from testing fabrics. Feel free to contact me with tips or questions of your own that you would like to share!