Melted Crayon Dried on Clothing

My daughter's kids put jeans in the washer with crayons. She didn't discover it until the jeans had gone through the dryer as well. It took her hours to clean the dryer, but the jeans still have "set-in" crayon marks. I offered to try to get out the marks, but I need help in doing so. Any suggestions? Thank you very much.

By Caseye from Plano, TX

Answers:

Melted Crayon Dried on Clothing

I would never use WD-40 on my children's clothing. However the other suggestion (2c. tide, 1c. Oxiclean, 1/2c 20 Mule team Borax, 1c. shout, 1c. White vinegar) worked like a dream! I am so thrilled because I was about to cry when I pulled out my daughter's beautiful new Gap dress only to find red crayon melted all over it. And red crayon on my son's new shirt from Gymboree, including my pants and shirts from J.Crew. None of which are cheap clothes. Ruined!

I ran to Walmart to get the supplies. I bought off brand oxiclean. Couldn't find Borax, and I had never heard of it before. After searching all over town, I finally found it at Target. I let the clothes soak over night, and every single item is spot free! Thank you to all who posted your responses about how well this worked. I was skeptical to try it, but because of so many responses, I figured, there's no way it doesn't work.

I used a Brillo pad on my dryer drum and it came off in under 5 minutes. It was not hard at all, and came off like an eraser removing pencil. Wonderful!

Try this, and NOT WD-40 (that's not safe for clothing or your dryer). Crayola's suggestion was WD-40, no way I would ever try that. Who ever came up with this magic solution is a genius! I even threw in my shirt that I had on yesterday (my daughter tripped and busted her lip, so while I was comforting her, she got blood all over my shirt), pulled it out this morning, and it was gone. YAY!

Also, it took longer to get the red crayon off of white clothing and the tulle under layers of my daughter's dress. After sitting over night, every single red mark from every item was magically gone.

Another question I had when reading about the solution, was, does this make my clothes/house smell like vinegar? Nope, the smell of the laundry detergent drowned it out, no problem.

Try it. You won't regret it! (11/06/2009)

By katie