A girlfriend of mine sent out a group text the other day that said something along the lines of, “It was only a matter of time… anyone know how to get crayon out of a fabric chair?”.
Now, if you’ve made it to this site because your little one decided to try out their fabric art skills too, I’m going to share the cleaning method my girlfriend used. And if you’re looking for tips on keeping them from having free range to the crayons to start with, check out my post on toddler and baby proofing “Keeping your toddler out of the toilet…(and other baby proofing tips too)”.
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You see on this particular day, my mom-friend was having one of those WTF parent moments when she found her 3-year-old daughter practicing her drawing skills on the furniture. My other girlfriends who were on the text chain started asking how bad it was so she sent the below picture.
Ouch.
My first response was just a good ol’ “It could always be worse” because it’s always good to remember that in these kinds of situations, especially with toddlers (and puppies that like to chew). I mean at least the colors weren’t blood red or hot pink, or every shade of green in the box; and hey her lines are actually pretty straight, which seems like it would be easier to clean vs a picture of a tree with a bird or something else.
Since I hadn’t yet had the privilege of experiencing “fabric art” with my own kid I had no idea how to help but started Googling an answer right away.
A few of us began sending replies to the text message with possible methods that might work for removing crayon from fabric…to name a few: Oxy Clean. Folex Cleaner (I’ve never used this but I was told it works good on red wine stains if you ever run into that). An iron and a brown paper bag (since that pulls wax out of carpet and fabric). Dish soap, or laundry soap. Multiple things I found online all suggested using WD-40 too, and that might work great, but it being an oil-based product, my friend was a little hesitant using it on this particular material.
She told us “thanks, wish me luck” and a little while later she sent over another text, with this picture of the cushion, now looking good as new.
.
OK, so what did she end up using to remove the crayon from the fabric?
A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Dawn dish soap and some warm water. She used the wet Magic Eraser first to get most of it out, then followed with a mixture of Dawn and warm water, rubbing with a soft cloth until it was gone.
The wonderful Magic Eraser…we go through a lot of them in my house (and PS check out Amazon’s pricing on them in bulk packages instead of buying them at your local store; they are the best priced that I have found recently). And now they also make them in these thin sheets that might be an even better option for furniture art removal. 🙂
I’ve used Magic Erasers on everything (including my freshly painted walls when my daughter drew all over them with the magnetic side of some foam letters. Yes, you can actually write with magnets, who knew). The packaging does say it works for removing crayons from surfaces, but I never thought to use them on fabric. I was always concerned with them magically erasing the color of the material but I am so happy that wasn’t the case for my friend, and so good to know for the future.
HUGE NOTE: they may very well do that to certain fabrics (or darker colors) so before you try it, please read the label and do the “inconspicuous area” test thing first.
If you have any of your own cleaning tips for getting crayon out of fabric, or tricks for those other “hard to clean” surfaces (or if you just have a funny story about something your crafty kiddo did), please share in the comments!
🙂