Removing Crayon from Colored Clothing

Hi There,

That’s a really old post-written 10 years ago by the first Dr. Laundry, who retired in 2010. Did you try any of his suggestions? I take a little different approach with crayon stains than he did, tackling the waxy part of a crayon stain first. Here’s what you can try:

1. Scrape away as much of the wax as possible with a dull knife.
2. Cut open a brown paper grocery bag (light weight) or lunch bag. Be sure the bag does NOT have any wax coating on it!
3. Place the bag over the wax spot, and then gently press with a dry iron on its lowest setting. You should see dark brown splotches appear on the bag as the wax is absorbed off the fabric and onto the paper.
4. Reposition a fresh part of the bag over the wax spot and gently press again with the iron. Repeat until no more wax absorbs onto the bag.
5. If any stain remains on the fabric, pre-treat the stained area by applying Clorox 2^® Stain Remover & Color Booster directly to the stain. Wait 5–10 minutes, and then wash in the hottest water recommended on the care label with detergent + Clorox 2^®. Air dry and check for success — repeat if necessary.

Brown paper bags are nice to work with for this because it is very easy to see the wax absorb onto the bag. It’s also important to begin work with the iron on its lowest heat setting so you don’t melt the wax too quickly and cause it to absorb into the fabric, or melt the fabric if it is synthetic. You can check your progress and possibly increase the temperature depending on how hot your iron is — they do vary.

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for reaching out!

—Dr. Laundry