Thread: Removing Hot Glue

I just stumbled upon this video and thought I'd share it, just in case someone needs to remove hot glue from costumes

very cool

Thanks!

Thanks for posting! Be sure to spot test this before you use it somewhere visible on a costume as the alcohol can cause discoloring on some fabrics.

Look at the objects he is gluing together--two pieces of metal, and metal to wood. Even if you are using the best construction-grade hot glue available, these are not objects known to give good adhesion to one another. That's why we solder or rivet metal pieces together and screw screws INTO wood. You're just not going to get a good bond by sticking them together with a glob of glue, especially if one of the objects has contours that limit the surface area coming in contact with the other object. Come back and talk to me when you've got a method for un-affixing two porous, flat objects that have been hot glued together.

Speaking of which, if you put any of these pairs in the freezer for a little while, they'll come apart quite easily when joined with standard crafter's hot glue. No alcohol needed.

But fabric, OTOH... Yeah, notice how none of his examples involve fabric. That might be because fabric and hot glue often marry til death do they part. With synthetics, the glue sometimes melts and fuses to the fibers. Other times, it just embeds in between the fibers in a way that makes it extremely difficult to remove all traces. There are the standard tricks, like putting the object in the freezer or the paper-towels-and-hair-dryer method (like for removing dripped candle wax), but unless the glue hasn't made a good connection with the weave/knit of the fabric and it is just sitting on the top with slight adhesion, it's hard to get it completely off--and one assumes that if you're trying to glue something like appliques or rhinestones to a costume, you're making an effort to aggressively mash them together for the best adhesion. The top object may pick off or fall off easily, but if the fabric you glued it to has any sort of nap or surface treatment, you can usually expect a bit of a bald spot once you've removed the glue blob. And as Mahsati pointed out, alcohol and fabric can have their own issues with bleeding or residue marks.

I agree that removing glue from fabric is much more trickier, however it can be useful to remove glue that was smeared on rhinestones and such by mistake. Working with glue can be messy and sometimes it's just easier to wipe out the excess.