How to Get Crayon Out of Clothes

Co-authored by Jessica Gibson

Your child may love coloring with crayons, but if you've ever gotten crayon on your clothes, you might not feel the same sort of affection for the waxy art supply. Thankfully, however, there are things you can do to get crayon out of clothes. Keep reading to find out what they are.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Removing Soft Crayon

1
Freeze the clothing item.^{[1]
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Research source} Clumps of soft crayon stuck on your clothes need to be removed before the stain can be removed, but if you try to scrape the crayon off while it is still soft, you risk spreading it to other areas of the fabric.
- Place the affected clothing in your freezer for 30 minutes, or until the crayon hardens.
2
Scrape off the excess crayon. Use a small, sharp paring knife or paint chisel to scrape the hardened crayon off the garment.
- Rub the sharp side of of the utensil in between the fabric and the crayon, coming at it from a slight angle. Move the blade on one direction only, and wipe the crayon off of the blade with a clean paper towel in between each pass.
- Note that a crayon stain may still remain underneath, but the solid crayon should be completely scraped off.
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3
Place the stained clothes between clean paper towels. Transfer the clothes to an ironing board. Sandwich the fabric in between paper towels, placing them around the location of the stain.^{[2]
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- Use white paper towels to eliminate the risk of accidentally transferring color from the paper towels onto the fabric.
4
Press the clothes with a warm iron. Gently press the iron onto the top layer of paper towel for 5 to 10 seconds. Lift the iron straight up to remove it.
- The heat should cause the crayon stain to lift from the clothes and onto the paper towels.
- Do not drag the iron across the surface of the fabric since doing so may spread the stain instead of lifting it.
- Use a low heat setting on your iron to reduce the risk of damaging your clothes.
- Replace the paper towels frequently. After every one or two presses, swap out the dirtied paper towels for clean ones. Otherwise, the crayon stain may transfer back onto the clothes.
5
Pretreat the stain with pre-wash stain remover. Remove the paper towels and apply a spot stain remover to the remaining stains.
- Blot the clothes with the stain remover and let dry.
- At this point, the ironing technique should have caused the crayon stains to fade, but some stains will likely remain. These stains can usually be removed with normal stain removing practices, though.
6
Wash the clothes. Run the stained clothing through a hot water cycle. Use standard detergent and bleach, if bleach is safe for the clothing item in question.
- If you cannot use standard bleach, try an oxygen bleach, instead.
- Rewash, if needed. If the stains have faded after the first wash, put the clothes through a second wash using the same type of detergent and bleach.

Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Removing Unwashed Crayon Stains

1
Place the stain on layers of paper towels. Stack half a dozen to a dozen paper towels into a single pile. Lay the affected clothing on the paper towels face down, with the stain directly over the paper towels.
- Use white paper towels instead of colored patterned ones. Otherwise, you run a slight risk of accidentally transferring color from the paper towels onto the fabric.
2
Spray the back of the stain with WD-40. Soak the stained area of fabric with WD-40 from the back of the fabric. Let the WD-40 sit on the fabric for five minutes before pressing forward.^{[3]
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- To prevent the WD-40 from getting on anything else, do this on a work surface, like a tool table, unfinished basement floor, or garage floor.
- The reason the WD-40 works is because it is a solvent. This means that it can break apart tough stains.
3
Spray the other side of the clothes with WD-40. Flip the garment over so that the stain is now exposed and spray the area again, this time working from the front.
- You do not need to let the WD-40 soak into the stain this second time. You can press forwardly immediately after application.
- Make sure that the stained portion is still positioned over the paper towels.
4
Rinse. Rinse the WD-40 and crayon out of the fabric thoroughly using cool, running water.
- Rinse the stain from the back first to force the excess crayon away along with the WD-40. Then, rinse the front of the stain to remove excess WD-40 from that area.
5
Work liquid dish detergent into the stain. Apply a dot of dish soap directly over the stain. Use your fingers or a clean rag to rub the soap into the crayon.
- Position the stained fabric back over the paper towels for a few minutes so that the paper towels can continue absorbing some of the stain.
- Rinse once more in cool water before continuing past this step.
6
Treat with pre-wash stain remover, if needed. At this point, most of the stain should be gone. If this is not the case, though, blot the stain with a pre-wash stain stick or stain remover.
- Let the stain remover dry before continuing.
7
Wash and rinse your clothes. Run the garment through a hot wash cycle with chlorine bleach.
- If your garments should not be washed with standard bleach, use oxygen bleach, instead.
- Use the hottest water safe for your fabric.
- Rinse the clothes in warm water.

Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Removing Large Amounts of Unwashed Crayon Stains

1
Combine stain-busting ingredients in a washer filled with hot water. Fill your washing machine with a full tub of hot water. Add to this 1 cup (250 ml) borax, 2 capfuls of detergent, 1 cup (250 ml) distilled white vinegar, 1 cup (250 ml) hydrogen peroxide, and 1 cup (250 ml) stain remover.^{[4]
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- Allow the various ingredients to combine for a few minutes without disturbing the solution or adding any more water or the stained clothes.
2
Place the crayon-stained clothes in the liquid. Dunk the clothes into the super-solution. Mix the clothes around in the solution by hand for a few minutes.
- Wear rubber gloves to protect your hands if you have sensitive skin.
- Swirl the clothes around in the solution in a circular motion.
- Make sure the clothes are completely soaked, not just the stained portions.
3
Let soak. Allow the clothes to sit in the solution, undisturbed, for at least one hour.
- If you have the time, however, allow the clothes to soak overnight so that the cleaning chemicals can penetrate the fibers more effectively.
4
Run the clothes through a rinse cycle. After the clothes have had time to soak, run the washer through a warm rinse cycle to rinse the cleaning solution out of the tub.
- Do not remove your clothes from the washing machine yet.
5
Wash the clothes as you would wash a regular cycle. Use warm to hot water and detergent.
- If your clothes can tolerate it, consider using chlorine bleach or oxygen bleach, as well.
- Repeat as needed. It may take two or three wash cycles before the crayon stains completely fade out of the fabric.

Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Removing Laundered and Set Crayon Stains

1
Put the stained clothes back in the washing machine. If you pull your clothes out of the dryer only to realize that a stray crayon got caught in the mix and stained the whole load, your best bet is to rewash the clothes.
- Make sure that no crayons have found their way into the washing machine first.
- Scrub any crayon stains out of the washing machine or dryer before attempting to launder the clothes again.
2
Run another wash cycle using hot water, detergent, and baking soda. Fill the tub with hot water and add a capful of premium detergent and 1 cup (250 ml) of baking soda. Put the clothes through a standard wash cycle.^{[5]
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- Check the clothing after pulling it out of the washing machine. If no stains remain, you can dry them. If some of the color still remains trapped in the fabric, do not dry the clothing yet.
3
Run yet another wash cycle using bleach or oxygen bleach, if needed.^{[6]
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Research source} If the stains have not completely washed out, bleach may help to remedy this. Make sure that bleach is safe to use on your garment before proceeding, though.
- You could also try an enzyme laundry product instead of bleach.
- Let the clothes sit in the bleach for 30 minutes before running the wash cycle.

Community Q&A

Question

I have a green Crayola crayon that made its way into a heated wash cycle. What do I do?

Community Answer

Use the baking soda method. It works like a charm for any crayon stain and it's one that doesn't make your back sore from bending over like the other ones!