I got melted wax on my favorite dress shirt. How can I get it out?
So very specific situation – there was a little bit of red wax stuck to the bottom of my laptop, probably because there was a piece of wax on the table that it was on previously (I did not realize this at the time). Then, when I laid the laptop on my chest while laying on the couch, I think the heat from the bottom of my laptop melted the red wax onto my shirt.
I don’t know anything about washing dress shirts because I only take them to the dry cleaner, but I would like to wear the shirt tonight. Can I throw it in the washing machine? Will that ruin it? Any particular way to get wax off of a shirt?
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8 Answers
Basically, you use an iron.
Here are step-by-step instructions.
The above is correct for getting the wax out.
The red dye is another situation altogether. You don’t mention what material your dress shirt is made from. Is it Silk, Cotton, some type of artificial fiber.
This makes all the difference in the world regarding what to do next. If it’s cotton, you can safely put it into a hot wash with some bleach AFTER doing the iron thing. That should get rid of the residual red dye.
Other fabrics most likely can’t take this type of treatment but it really depends upon the type of fabric.
Since it is a nice shirt and the wax is red, you might want to just bring it to a dry cleaner. That is the best way of making sure it will be unruined. I wouldn’t try doing anything rash for te sake of wearing it tonight. Good luck!
Put several layers of newspaper on the ironing board, then put the waxed dress on the top of it, then newspaper again. Start to iron on low temperature, and when the wax melts, the newspaper’s gonna suck out the wax from the clothes. Thats it
Ice cube works much better. let the wax freeze, then flick it away. a hair dryer will dry your shirt. try this first.
After my mom died my prick if a BIL decided to crank the thermostat up on her house and leave it that way until my hubby and I arrived to deal with the remains of her estate. She had had many pillar candles all through the house that melted everywhere. The biggest mess was one that melted off a shelf onto a puddle on the green carpet. I chipped away what I could and then I laid down pieces of torn paper grocery bags and ironed…and ironed…and ironed. After using some 5 grocery bags all the wax came up.
Considering the red dye, I would suggest the ice cube method would be better, the iron method will ‘set’ the red dye and it will be ruined forever. Use the ice cubes, then treat with a whitener. I suggest enzyme bleach, not clorine.
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