The Power of the Sun and a Dash of Lemon!

I recently purchased a pre-loved diaper that had a small, but noticeable stain. I was willing to overlook the stain because the price was okay (not great), it's a brand I love (Happy Heinys), and the colour is purple.
I felt my little man was in dire need of a dark purple diaper, and I also had to feed my compulsion to work towards having a perfect rainbow of solid colours in my collection.

So I made the purchase with the intention of trying to get rid of this stain- and people, I am proud to say: I DID IT!

I'm very pleased with myself. Here is my Before:

 

Before

And here is my After:

After

I know the stain wasn't horrible to begin with, but I'm still happy about the result! This is what I did:

-First, I bleached the diaper. I know you should never bleach a diaper cover because it can ruin the PUL and you can never be too sure about how colourfast the outer layer is. But in this case, seeing that it was second hand plus it had a glaring stain- well, you can never be too careful. (I bleached according to this entry on the Doable Diapers blog.)

-The stain was still there after the bleach, and multiple wash cycles to ensure the bleach was gone. So I re-wet the diaper and doused the stain in pure lemon juice. I just took that little container that looks like a lemon, and poured drops of the juice directly onto the stained area.

-Because it's winter here and I didn't think hanging a diaper to dry outside in -20 weather was a good idea, I hung it fleece out in my window. I've been told that bleaching diapers in the sun works best if the diaper is wet when hung.

-Then I waited. I left the diaper in the window for three days. On day two I re-wet the diaper again and added a bit more lemon juice because I could still see the stain. On day three I took it down at night and threw it in the wash with the rest of my diapers. And when it came out, the stain was gone!

I'm glad this worked, because this is small potatoes compared to the next diaper I have coming to me. I also recently purchased another pre-loved diaper, for a great price ($7!), in a print I've been coveting (Rumparooz Robotronics print). According to the pictures, it does not look pretty- hence the price. But apparently it's only been used a handful of times, and the previous owner just didn't have the time to work on removing the stains. I'm anxious to see if the magic of the sun and lemon juice can salvage my next piece of fluff!