I'm wondering if you folks can help me out with two clothing care problems I'm finding myself troubled with. I admit it, I can only just barely manage to separate my handwash and dry-clean only items from the machine wash safe items, so this is beyond me!

1. Last night, I discovered that my better white button-down - the one with a fantastic cut and a subtle texture, which I can wear either as a basic as part of a work outfit or just on its own with a pair of jeans - has a couple of mysterious, light pink dye stains. I'm guessing this came from the laundry.

What do I do? I know dye stains are hard to get out, and I haven't worn this shirt in a few months, so they must have been around for a while ... what I have to hand are a basic stain remover (almost certainly won't work), non-chlorine bleach, and RIT Color Remover (http://www.ritdye.com/Fabric+T.....7.49.lasso).

2. Back in college I acquired a long, wool pleated skirt in plaid, and then promptly put it in the dryer the first time I washed it (uh, I'm better about that now!). My mother rehemmed the lining for me, but then I gained the Freshman 20 and stopped fitting into it - I didn't get rid of the skirt because I liked the plaid so much and wistfully hoped I would fit into it again. Now I do, and I tried wearing it out, but the pleats aren't holding their shape even after ironing. Are they permanently distorted by the drying, or is there something I can do? I was browsing around on the web and I found a reference to dry-cleaning to "set the pleats," so I was just wondering.

Any help on either question would be most welcome!