General Question

Nimis's avatar

How do you remove adhesive from silk?

Asked by Nimis (13260points) February 27th, 2009

I used that adhesive for clothing to keep a silk sash in place.
Now I’ve removed the tape, but can’t seem to remove the damn adhesive.

I’ve tried googling this.
A lot of generic suggestions, but I think most of them would damage silk.

So far I’ve tried:
01 Duct tape.
Only seems to work for the big gunky stuff.
The adhesive seems to have worked itself into the fabric itself.

02 Ironing over with paper towel.
Was supposed to transfer onto the paper towel.
Except, in my case, it seems to prefer the silk over paper.

I’m about to try:
03 Freezing and rubbing.
I threw it into the freezer.
Willing to give it a shot, but am kind of dubious.

After that, I’m going to try:
04 Vinegar.
Seems less harsh than other chemicals.
Will it discolour the silk though?

05 Whatever you folks can suggest.

PS Just to complicate things, there’s also very delicate lace involved.

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4 Answers

steve6's avatar

Try rubbing alcohol on a small part to see if it affects the color. It should dissolve the glue.

TheKNYHT's avatar

rubbing alcohol may be the way to go, but first try it in an inconspicuous place to see if it discolors or damages fabric (a very SMALL inconspicuous place); same goes for the vinegar.
Depending on how much area we are talking about, you might want to try freezing it, then use a needle to finely pick out the frozen bits.

Nimis's avatar

@steve6 Will definitely try the alcohol—but as a last resort.

@wilburzel Yes, that was the only silk specific link I found.
But mine is definitely a lingering problem. Drat.
May have to hunt down an enzyme presoak that’s safe for silk.

@TheKNYHT A needle! I hadn’t thought of that—good idea!

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