How to remove wax from woolen clothes?

Question

During Christmas I managed to drop some wax of a candle onto my woolen pullover. On most other types of cloth, I would just try to remove it by scrubbing it off, but this does not seems like an option here, since I would ruin my pullover this way.

How do I remove the wax now?

Decided to do the comment as an answer... see below – Bamboo Dec 28 '15 at 12:55 — Bamboo, Dec 28 '15 at 12:55

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 28 '15 at 12:58

4

Usual method to remove wax is to try to pick or peel off as much as possible, and then get some blotting paper or a couple of sheets of absorbent kitchen paper and a hot iron. Place the paper over the wax, and apply the hot iron to the paper - the trouble is, your jumper is wool, and that doesn't take too much of a high temperature, so its a bit of a risk. You need to melt the wax through the paper, which then absorbs it...without burning the sweater.

answered Dec 28 '15 at 12:58

Bamboo

3,704
9
11

i'll give it a try, and then (depening on the result) accept this answer. – print x div 0 Dec 28 '15 at 13:09
Ooh, just make sure you don't get the hot iron actually on the fabric itself, only over the paper.... good luck! – Bamboo Dec 28 '15 at 14:19
ISTR that brown paper (of the sort used to wrap parcels) used to be favoured for this technique. Good luck finding any these days though! – Dominic Cronin Dec 29 '15 at 19:12
Worked for me, thank you! For anyone who comes across this question/answer: I used absorbent kitchen paper and it did the job. – print x div 0 Jan 04 '16 at 06:56

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 31 '15 at 16:37

3

Place the garment in the freezer for an hour or two, remove and break the wax off the garment. I would go this route first before trying to heat the wax. Heating the wax seems like it would make it get into the fabric deeper, making it harder to remove.

answered Dec 31 '15 at 16:37

UnhandledExcepSean

861
1
5
10

Since I already removed the wax I cannot test/confirm this, but it seems reasonable. +1 from me. – print x div 0 Jan 04 '16 at 06:58

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 04 '16 at 15:00

After having to test exactly this over Christmas, I'd actually recommend using a towel rather than brown paper. Either a tea-towel or fine towel rather than a thick pile towel.

Yes, the towel then needs a boil wash, but it draws all the wax out of the jumper much faster, so you don't need to keep the jumper at a high temperature for so long. This could be critical for a delicate wool jumper!

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 05 '18 at 10:06

0

I just tried this method with a dish towel (tea towel) and it worked perfectly. I put one tea towel inside the wool jumper and one on top of the wax stain, then ironed at a medium heat setting three or four times. Wax is gone.

answered Mar 05 '18 at 10:06

cmt

1

How to remove wax from woolen clothes?

4 Answers4