The final countdown is on – just over a week until all those Halloween costumes need to be ready to go! For those of you who are DIYing, especially if you’re cranking out a homemade ghost sheet costume or two, you may be busy with your sewing machine, iron, and/or fusible interfacing.
Or now that the Scouting season has begun, perhaps you have a bunch of new patches and awards and such that you want to iron onto your kiddo’s uniform.
Either way, if you’re reading this after an internet search, there’s a good chance you have a problem on your hands. Namely, your iron faceplate is now covered with stray goo. How do you remove adhesive from your iron, without damaging the iron itself?
Don’t laugh – it happens!
This was me over the weekend. I had only a few hours left until Trunk-or-Treat at our church, and was trying to finish Kimmie’s unicorn costume. The final step involved fusing brown felt onto cream felt, as part of making her unicorn ears.
I had the double-sided interfacing out, and thought I was being careful about only ironing over the interfacing with a layer of ironing paper or the felt itself between iron and interfacing at all times.
But as I was finishing the project, I realized that the iron was no longer gliding as smoothly as it should. And when I looked at it, this is what I saw:
Do you see all that gunky adhesive? All over the brand-new iron we just barely started using two months ago???
That my husband picked out, no less, because he’s the one who mostly uses the iron??? (He irons that day’s outfit every morning before he goes to teach. I have an iron-free wardrobe on purpose, as do the girls, because I hate ironing. The only time I turn on the iron is to do something involving sewing or crafting.)
I knew I was in deep doo-doo if I didn’t figure out how to get the adhesive off of that iron, without destroying the iron, before 6am Monday morning when he went to press that day’s dress shirt for work!
How To Clean Adhesive Off Of An Iron (Without Destroying The Iron!)
Much to my surprise, this turned out to be easier than I’d feared!
The first thing I tried, turning the iron on to “cotton” setting and ironing over a clean piece of paper towel (to see if I could transfer the adhesive to the paper towel), didn’t work.
So I unplugged the iron and moved on to my second attempt, which worked wonderfully.
Supplies needed:
- Clean paper towels.
- Some kind of solvent that dissolves adhesive. Goo-Gone is the most common that you may have on hand, but in my case, my Goo-Gone was upstairs, and I was in the basement. So I turned to the solvents I have on hand in my laundry room for removing stains (sticker residue, Silly Putty, etc.) from clothing. The one I grabbed first was Contractor’s Solvent; if that hadn’t worked, I would have tried Krud Kutter or Motsenbocker’s Sticky formula. (For those of you who are keeping score at home, Krud Kutter is “Earth-Friendly” because it meets the EPA’s Safer Products standards, and Motsenbocker products are biodegradable. I just happened to grab the Contractor’s Solvent first.)
- Something to wipe the iron plate clean afterward. I used a little white vinegar, which I always have on hand in my laundry room for cleaning purposes.
Step by step:
- Plug in the iron to allow it to warm up, then unplug and let it cool slightly. (Warming the faceplate will help loosen the adhesive, but you don’t want to clean it while the iron is still plugged in!)
- Fold a piece of paper towel so it is several layers thick.
- Spray the adhesive remover ONTO THE PAPER TOWEL, not onto the faceplate itself.
- Rub the warm faceplate with the damp paper towel until all the adhesive is gone. (You may need to refold your towel at some point, so you have a clean paper surface to work with. You may also need to add more adhesive remover to your paper towel.)
- Once you can’t see any more adhesive on the iron faceplate, moisten a fresh paper towel with white vinegar. Then wipe the faceplate clean with the vinegar paper towel. (This will remove any remaining adhesive-remover residue from the faceplate.)
Your iron should now be clean and ready to go!
Important to note:
Were you surprised by the white vinegar at the end? For what it’s worth, I’ve written elsewhere about all the cool ways you can use vinegar as an environmentally-friendly cleaning product, plus why vinegar is handy for laundry specifically. Using white vinegar is one of my favorite household hacks, so do check these posts if you want to know more!
How to NOT make the same mistake again:
So your iron faceplace is now clean, but you’re not ready to swear off ironing things with adhesive. How do you avoid ending up in the same place all over again?
Simple: use something between the iron and the (fusible interfacing/whatever contains iron-on adhesive) next time!
There are several easy choices here. The easiest and most obvious is this: If your fusible interfacing has a paper liner on one side, then keep it there until you’re done adhering the first side of the interfacing to the surface you’re trying to adhere it to. (This will not always be the case if you are using random old scraps of interfacing, as I was in this case.)
If your interfacing doesn’t have a paper liner, the next easiest thing to do is to add a sheet of parchment paper between the iron faceplace and your item being ironed. If you bake a lot or use an air fryer, you may already have a roll of parchment paper lying around your kitchen (or perhaps pre-cut sheets of parchment paper, which is what my husband prefers).
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I do this ALL the time! The goo gone works really well, I’ve also used an ibuprofen tablet and wipes it off with the white vinegar, so strange but it works!
Ibuprofen + vinegar??? No way! THAT is an awesome hack!!!
I’m guilty of lots of DIYing with an iron! This is great because I would probably end up throwing my iron away. Thanks for sharing!
You are so welcome! 🙂
Ahh this is so helpful! I have to remember this next time this happens to me 🙂
You’re welcome! 🙂
You’re welcome! 🙂
Thank you for this! I’ve never seen Goo gone here in the UK, but I think I can pick up a builder’s solvent at the hardware store.
What would you recommend for burnt stains on your iron?? :0
For the Aftercare of the iron if I don’t have vinegar on hand sometimes I will use CLR or the cheapest vodka you can find. I’m talking something that cost a dollar or two, the cheaper the better. I also use that in costuming to disinfect the clothes because Febreze gives too much of a stink
Oh my, I’ve never done much ironing in my life but I will have to remember this if I ever get something like that on an iron Thanks for the tips.
You are so welcome Sarah! 🙂
I’m saving this for future reference! I wish you lived in my hood so I could just knock on your door to ask for hacks consistently LOL
Aww, you’re so sweet! One of my blogging friends was actually texting me last night trying to hack her son’s Halloween costume for this weekend lol!
Very helpful tips for how to remove adhesive from an iron. Goo goo gone is a great product recommendation that really works well.
It is amazing stuff! Useful for so MANY cleaning hacks!
We don’t iron too often, I am sure we should sometimes though. But I love goo gone! It works wonders.
Isn’t it a fab invention?
This is a great way to clean the iron. My husband iron his clothes we pretty help each other. Thank you for these tips, it helps.
I’m so glad – you’re welcome! 🙂
Ha, my hubby does most of the ironing too… it’s rare I get it out of the cupboard! Although the plate does need a clean, so I will give this a go!
Good luck, and hope it helps! 🙂
Can you just be my neighbor? I need you all the time to help me with ALL the little things that I don’t know anything about! You’re a SUPER MOM for sure Flossie!!!!
LOL you rock Gigi! I need you as my cheerleader whenever my kids are giving me grief! And if we were neighbors, you’d never be rid of me because I’d always be bugging you for nutrition tips and cooking hacks lol!
Hah, I don’t iron, either! The only reason we have one in the house is because my mom likes to iron her clothes when she comes to visit so bought us one! My son just started Cub Scouts, so I will probably be doing patches or badges (whatever they call them in Boy Scouts) and may need to do this, too!
Here’s hoping you don’t gunk anything up too bad!
Oh girl!!! I have been there! I’m an avid quilter and will often use a fabric stabilizer that has iron on adhesive. There is nothing worse than getting melty goo all over a $200 iron!
Absolutely! So you know my pain!!!
Lol… I did the exact same thing working on my kids costumes. I’ll definitely try this, Thank You so much for sharing!!
You’re welcome! (And now hopefully we’ve BOTH learned our lesson! 🙂 )