How to Get Grass Stains Out of Jeans

One of the best things to do on a sunny day is to spend time under that sun and on the grass. While being outdoors can be great for your health and wellbeing, it can also result in unsightly and very hard to remove grass stains. That lovely greenery is generally hard to get out of most clothing but it seems to especially enjoy sticking to items with high cotton content like your jeans.

Cotton is a great textile because of how well it takes to dye and pigment – how else would we get jeans in those dazzling shades of blue? This makes it ripe for grass stains as the grass is full of organic pigments that your jeans will soak right up at a molecular level. This is why the stains are so hard to remove. Luckily, grass stains can be dealt with at home with a little creativity. Read on to learn how to get grass stains out of denim.

How to get grass stains out of jeans with detergent

The best way to get rid of a grass stain is as soon as it appears. The fast you tackle it the less likely it can become permanent and difficult to remove. Detergent may seem like an obvious option for removing stains but how to get grass stains out of denim requires first pretreating jeans with detergent before putting them in the wash.

Step 1: Fill a bathtub with enough cool water to submerge your jeans. You can also opt for a container like a bucket as long as your jeans can fit. The water can’t be hot as this will make the grass stain permanent but it also can’t be so cold that your detergent won’t mix into it either. Cooler water temperatures will also protect your jeans from color fading and shrinking.

Read: How to Shrink Stretch Jeans

Step 2: In a cup, mix your detergent with cool to lukewarm water to make a paste. Start by adding small increments of water to at least three spoons of detergent until you get a thick pasty consistency. Dab this paste directly onto your jeans where the grass stains are. Take your time and work the paste into every single inch of the stain.

You can always have too much detergent, it’s always better than not having enough.

Step 3: Submerge your jeans into the water. You don’t need to do anything further to the jeans provided they are completely submerged and saturated in the water. You can leave them there for at least 30 minutes. Larger and heavier set stains will require longer soaks of up to an hour.

Step 4: Now that your stains have been pretreated you can put them into the washing machine. Use a cool water setting and set it to a normal cycle with your preferred amount of detergent and fabric softener. You can hand wash them instead if you prefer in cold water.

Step 5: Hang your jeans out to dry in the sun and they should be as good as new.

How to get grass stains out of jeans with DIY paste

You can create your own grass stain removal paste at home with regular items from your cupboard and pantry: baking soda, liquid dish soap, and hydrogen peroxide. This isn’t the hydrogen peroxide used for hair bleaching. You’ll need household use or food-grade peroxide to create this paste.

Step 1: Soak your jeans in cool water to loosen the fibers and the grass stain. The longer your grass stain has set into your jeans, the lower the results you will be able to notice but this is still an important step either way. Leave the jeans in the water for 30 minutes.

Step 2: Make a mixture that is two parts hydrogen peroxide to one part liquid dish soap. You can put this into a spray bottle or use a cloth or toothbrush to apply it to the stains.

Step 3: Apply the mixture directly to the grass stains. If you are using a spray bottle, it will help to dab the mixture into the denim with a cloth moistened with the mixture. Don’t hold back in this step and saturate the stained areas as much as you can.

Step 4: Sprinkle baking soda over the treated areas and use a toothbrush or cloth to push the baking soda into your jeans. Leave these spots to sit with the solution for 10-15 minutes.

Step 5: Rinse out the mixture from your jeans before putting them in the washing machine. It’s still important to keep your water heat cool to cold in this step to protect your jeans from damage. Wash your jeans on a normal cycle.

Step 6: Hang your jeans to dry under direct sunlight. Once your jeans are dry, it will also be easier to see if the stains have been removed fully. If not, repeat the process once more.

How to get grass stains out of jeans with vinegar

Regular white vinegar is a fantastic tool for denim. It helps to prevent color fading, soften denim and now it can also get rid of grass stains in your jeans.

Step 1: Soak your jeans in cold water as soon as you notice the stain though this is still an important step even if you don’t act immediately. Leave your jeans in the cold water for half an hour. This will soften your jeans and remove any residual grass and dart.

Step 2: Fill half a cup with warm water and the rest with white vinegar. You can increase the water and vinegar amounts as long as they are a 1:1 ratio. Don’t use hot water as this can fade your jeans and set the grass stain. You can dip a cloth or toothbrush into the mixture. The bristles of a brush work better at tackling the stain.

Step 3: Scrub the grass stains with your cloth or toothbrush as hard as you can. Once you’ve scrubbed enough of the grass stain away you can douse the stains with the remainder of your vinegar solution and let that sit in the jeans for 5-10 minutes.

Step 4: Using normal detergent and fabric softener, put your jeans into the washing machine on a normal cycle. You can do this along with a regular load if you prefer.

Step 5: Hang your jeans to dry in the sun. Drying your jeans in the sun will remove any lingering vinegar odor if the washing machine hasn’t already. If there are any stain remnants, you can go repeat the process once more.

How to get grass stains out of white jeans

Grass stains are especially problematic for white jeans. Not only are they more noticeable but white jeans will obviously cling to the grass pigments even more than blue or black jeans. As with all stains, it’s best to treat them as soon as they appear and this is doubly important for white jeans. Here is how to get grass stains out of denim even when it’s bright white.

Step 1: The acidic properties of vinegar is fantastic for removing grass stains but white jeans will require more vinegar than darker colors. Make a 1:1 mixture of cool water and vinegar in a large container or your bathtub. There needs to be enough of the solution for the jeans to be completely submerged and soaked.

Step 2: Soak the jeans in the water and vinegar solution for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Now you can put your jeans in the wash, with other white items only of course. Mix ½ a cup of bleach into your detergent and set your washing machine to a cool water setting. If you’re handwashing, you can leave your jeans to soak in bleach and detergent in cool water for an hour.

Step 4: Hang your jeans out to dry in direct sunlight. The sun will help further bleach your jeans and remove the stains. If there are any grass stains left, you can spot treat them with bleach on a cloth or toothbrush or repeat the vinegar soak.

Read: How to Acid Wash Jeans

How to get grass stains out of jeans with alcohol

Rubbing alcohol is a very potent solution and it should only be used as a last resort for grass stains that have had a long time to set in. Alcohol can potentially damage the fibers of jeans so it must be used sparingly.

Step 1: Soak your jeans in water to get them wet. You can wring them dry to remove some of the moisture.

Step 2: Apply the rubbing alcohol to a cloth or cotton ball and use this to blot the alcohol into your jeans. Use a gentle hand in this process and avoid scrubbing at all costs. Scrubbing the alcohol can cause your jeans to pile, fade and become damaged.

Step 3: Leave the alcohol in your jeans until it’s dried. Rinse your jeans with cold water.

Step 4: Apply a little bit of detergent to the grass stains and gently rub it in for 5 minutes. Then you can leave the jeans to dry in direct sunlight.

Read: How to Lighten Jeans