Friday, June 8, 2007

How to remove hot glue from clothing

Patty asks:
How do I remove hot glue from a piece of vintage clothing?

The first thing I would do is put the piece of clothing in the freezer. I have found, from living in Alaska, that hot glue pops off of items when it freezes. So if there is a lump of glue that might remove it. If there seems to be glue in the fibers try to heat it to remove it. T
ake a piece of clean cotton and place the glue spot face down on it. Press a hot iron on the area (make sure the clothing is safe to iron at a high heat), pressing for 10-20 seconds. Peel it away from the cotton. Move the cotton over to a clean spot. Repeat until the glue has been absorbed into the cotton.

Best of luck,
Judi

6 comments:

Unknown said...

this actually really worked!
I had a rubbed in piece of hot glue on my brand new shirt. I placed the glue- side down on an old pillowcase and ironed on high. Like magic, it was gone!
Thanks for the tip.

Anonymous said...

I tried the ironing technique and it did nothing for me. I eventually tried nail polish remover (acetone base) and it worked!

Anonymous said...

Yes, I tried the acetone nail polish remover to get the hot glue off a white straw fedora. Worked like a charm. Some areas had thicker glue, but just soak your cotton pad in the acetone and let it sit on the spot for a bit. The glue will peel off cleanly without damaging the material. BTW, the inside tag said not to wash the hat, but the acetone did not discolor or hurt the hat's material in any way. Thanks to all who posted before me.

Pauwilo
808 Wave

alisha said...

the nail polish remover worked on a delicate lace dress that i had when nothing else would, thank you!

Anonymous said...

I first tried the acetone on my sweater. The glue had gotten into the fibres pretty thoroughly. The acetone did not seem to do that much for me. I tried the hot iron approach, which actually worked pretty well. Saved my sweater!

Anonymous said...

My fabric had a glue spot that seeped into the fibers. The fabric was 100% cotton, dyed with Rit dye.
It was a part of an expensive costume I had worked on for days. So I panicked!

I tried the iron, but it did not work and the spot kept getting bigger as the glue melted more.

I tried the acetone on scrap material to test the color fastness and it was OK. I tried it on my costume and it did fade it just a little. There was still glue on the back side, but I was not sure if I wanted to keep going. Most of the glue is gone, though, and that is a relief.