How to Remove Sharpie from Denim

by | Jan 27, 2008 | House & Home | 3 comments

I’m like stinkin’ Houdini.

Martha Stewart wants to meet me, or at least I think she would want to if she knew about my mad skillz.

How to Remove Sharpie from Denim.

I have no before picture, and an after picture without a before picture is like ice water with no ice. It’s just not the same.

I still have to tackle the Sharpie drawings on my wall, chair, chair cover and chair leg. But, let’s not focus on what has NOT been done. Let’s focus on the impressive miracle that has occurred before mine own eyes (but not yours because I have no pictures… I digress).

O.K. I give. This is how I removed Sharpie from denim:

  • OxiClean. I soaked the jacket for a day in OxiClean. The instructions say the oxi-ness only lasts for 6 hours, but I’m a mom and I don’t have a 6-hour-timer, aaaaaand a day isn’t that much longer than 6 hours… in Mutha-Land anyway.
  • A dish scrubber. You know, the plastic bristly kind. Did I mention my denim jacket has the “distressed-ish” look. I. Scrubbed. That. Jacket. I focused on the one quarter of the garment that was affected. Then I scrubbed on the other side (mirror) to help assure similar fading.
  • A ride in the washer… but NOT the dryer… no. no. no. *shakes finger*
  • Zout. I let Zout sit on it for a day.

Interesting fact: Zout does a great job of getting out oily stains! Say, like when you get extra butter on your popcorn at the movie theater… and the “extra” seeps out of the bag and onto the only pair of jeans you can wear into public because they are the only ones without oil stains because you always get extra butter… and now you can’t wear these jeans in public because there is a big oily butter stain on the right leg and…. This is just an example. I have no experience with extra butter. Really. Might I remind you I am a committed athlete.

  • I Zout-ed some more, to make sure the surface was nice and wet. Then I took one of those green heavy duty scrub sponges and used some o’ dat old fashioned elbow grease.
  • Rinse.
  • Another soak in the tub with OxiClean… I think it was another “6 hours”.
  • My thumbnail… not a reduced-size picture, but MY thumbnail. I just whipped out my very own stain fighting weapon and “erased” the little markings that were yet mildly discernible.
  • And yet another wild ride in the washer.

Voila (how do you get that little flick thing on top of the “a”?)!!!

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