Cleaning yellowed plastic on Sewing Machines

If you love vintage sewing machines, and have any of the ones that are new enough to have plastic, you have probably seen at least one of them that has a nasty ugly yellowing, or even orange or brown coloration, on something that used to be white or cream colored. These are some methods recommended for rectifying this type of problem.

Apparently, this is also recommended for the American Dolls, use an acne cream with benzoyl peroxide, then expose it to incandescent or sunlight, until it bleaches enough, then wash it all off.


Charlotte Kies Jordan, in the Facebook group Vintage Sears Kenmore and White Sewing Machines, shared a photo of the cream developer (a hair bleaching cream developer) to bleach the plastics white again. It is Wella Color Charm Cream developer 20, here is a link to see the same type on Amazon-

https://www.amazon.com/Wella-Color-Charm-Clear-Developer/dp/B000N5QWA4/ref=sr_1_4?hvadid=14303928235&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&keywords=wella+cream+developer+20&qid=1563847888&s=gateway&sr=8-4


This article is about computers, but explains why these plastics turn yellow, and explains how to peroxide bleach them back to their original color.

https://www.howtogeek.com/196687/ask-htg-why-do-old-computers-and-game-consoles-turn-yellow/?fbclid=IwAR0eQPg4Fhgwi_AHtptb1KBX5Zzr-rNO1oWd6BXe5t6-eE0wlpsmbDpQqqE