Will alcohol (cheap vodka for cleaning) damage fabrics?

B

BigBrother

Registered Guest
I’ve read in multiple places that a great solution for lingering body odors or other such things on vintage is to spray the cheapest vodka you can find at your local liquor store. I plan on doing this for a number of my vintage garments, but I was wondering about safety. Could this weaken, dissolve, denature, or otherwise harm the fabrics? These would mostly be wool, but I’m curious about this approach for fabrics in general.

My alternative is dry cleaning, and I’d llove je to determine which is likely to be the least damaging to the fabrics (maybe a third solution?)

Thanks all!
 
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Wool can often be hand-washed, but it depends - if you mean tailored garments, eg jackets, with lining, or interfacing and structure etc, or with permanent pleating - those can't be washed. But a garment made only of unlined wool fabric, either woven or knitted, may be able to be carefully washed.

There's an art / science to hand washing wool, ask if you want more details.

Airing is another method for smells, as are ozone machines.

Really you have to take a garment by garment approach on these things. You may like to read our in-depth article on care and cleaning. https://vintagefashionguild.org/care-and-cleaning-for-the-vintage-seller/
 
Verrrrrry interesting! So I bought a bottle of super cheap vodka and decided to run a little test – I sprayed it on an armpit of a particularly funky WWII tunic that I owned, and ran my steamer on the other. I was about 90% certain the vodka would win. Nope! The vodka removed about 80-90% of the smell, whereas steam alone virtually knocked it out. And here I had a steamer all along! Seems like a better option anyway I think, as it’s not adding anything to the garments as I’m sure vodka does.
 
UPDATE- Nope, it's not one size fits all! So with the WWII, 80-year-old BO, steam won and vodka didn't. Well, today before going out I tried steaming a vest I have, quite modern and made of wool and polyester, and it didn't really do the trick. So I reached for my vodka spray bottle. Astoundingly effective. Even after wearing it, virtually zero odor. Fascinating...
 
BigBrother said:
UPDATE- Nope, it's not one size fits all! So with the WWII, 80-year-old BO, steam won and vodka didn't. Well, today before going out I tried steaming a vest I have, quite modern and made of wool and polyester, and it didn't really do the trick. So I reached for my vodka spray bottle. Astoundingly effective. Even after wearing it, virtually zero odor. Fascinating...
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I think polyester can be particularly nasty at holding odours, so maybe that's why
 
Retro Ruth said:
I think polyester can be particularly nasty at holding odours, so maybe that's why
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Interesting though that the solution was reversed. I would think both solutions would be scaled proportionally, but nope- the steam didn't do much at all, and vodka was king. Curious.
 
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