Candle wax spilled on t-shirt may seem like it would be impossible to remove. It ruins the look of the t-shirt, and it even changes its texture of the shirt in the area were it was spilled. You may think that your t-shirt is now beyond repair, but there are several methods of getting the wax off a t-shirt. If you can get any of the wax off while it is still pliant and warm, take off as much as you can. This can be difficult however, because as soon as the wax is cool enough to handle it will get stiff very quickly. Once the wax is hardened there are two main methods of getting the wax out. One way to do it is to use heat and the other is to use cold.

If you take the t-shirt and put it in the freezer for an hour or two, the cold will freeze the wax. Once the wax is frozen, you can break it much the way you would break glass. If the wax is very thick, use a hammer to break it up into pieces and then discard the pieces. If it is thinner, rolling the frozen portion of the shirt should break the wax up and make it easier to get rid of the frozen pieces.

The other primary way of getting rid of wax on a t-shirt is to use heat. You can use heat by placing the t-shirt into boiling water to loosen the wax. This will heat the wax enough to make it make it liquid again and it should float to the top of the pot of water. When this happens, skim the liquid wax from the top of the water to keep it from settling back on the shirt once you take the shirt from the water. Once the water has cooled, pour out the water and check t-shirt for any remaining wax once it is cool enough to touch. It may need to be boiled again or at a higher temperature if there is still wax left on the shirt.

Another way to use heat is to turn the t-shirt inside out, put sheets of newspaper inside the shirt and lay the shirt and newspapers flat. Then, take a hot iron and iron the t-shirt. Don’t use the steam setting for this method- only heat. The iron will melt the wax which will then be soaked up by the newspaper. Using an old towel instead of a newspaper will also work for this method.

If you try any of these methods and still can’t get the very smallest pieces of wax out of the fibers, you can use a needle to dislodge those pieces. This is often easier if the wax has been frozen first. Then, simply sit and push the tiny parts of wax out of the fabric with the needle. This is painstaking work, however, and it’s easier to try to get the wax out with the other methods.