You poor thing--how frustrating! I second the suggestion of RIT color
remover, but if you do it by simmering (instead of a hot water washing
machine load/tub) I also suggest that you do it piece by piece and remove
the linen from the pot the second it turns back to white. If you leave it
longer, it always seems to turn yellow, and that yellow is just about
impossible to remove. Also, be sure to pre-wash the linen several times, as
the RIT color remover reacts with bleach, turning the fabric orange when
exposed to both and then to air, and probably sending off a lot of nasty
fumes as well. (This happened to me on linen, even after having sent the
color-removered linen through a wash cycle before trying the bleach.) That
orange can be bleached out though, if I remember right. (Isn't chemistry
fun.)
Aaaanyway. Dharma Trading sells a color remover which might be worth a try:
http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1535-AA.shtml
In my experience, it's pretty similar to the RIT stuff, but it may be
different chemically. Also, hydrogen peroxide might be worth trying.
Specific types of bleach to try are enzymatic bleach, which should get rid
of any protein-based material (hey, it could be bug red), and oxygen
bleaches such as oxy-clean, which are hydrogen peroxide based.
Silly though this may sound, you also might want to just try washing it
normally a couple more times. I had this cotton cardigan which got
absolutely covered in purple ink when a pen burst; I tried washing it once
just to see if any of the ink would budge--it didn't--then left it in the
laundry room to wait for me to feel like dealing with it; it stayed there
until I'd forgotten why it was there in the first place. A few months
later, I accidentally put it in with a load of laundry, and it came out
clean. Weird.
Hope some of this helps,
-E House
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