I’ve written how to clean or remove spray baste gunk before, but since it is one of my most popular posts, I thought it deserved a refresh. This is not a debate on spray baste or spray glue. I love it for making bras and gluing tiny bits of lace to power mesh before sewing, or for stabilizing knit minky to a woven fabric.
Overspray happens. Here’s how we deal.
Here are a number of fabrics you may be using with spray baste. I first encountered the gunk when making a baby blanket with minky.
For this tutorial, I sprayed half of each fabric and literally dabbed them with dryer lint to recreate a worst-case scenario. Don’t worry, this will also work if you’ve already washed and dried your item, and your gunk looks like silly putty mated with an old bathrobe.
I prefer 99% isopropyl alcohol for removing gunk. I buy cheap toothbrushes just for cleaning. I suspect that is why there are medium and hard bristle options even after years of our dentists telling us to only buy soft bristles.
Use non-reactive cups and surfaces. Pour some alcohol into the cup, dip toothbrush into alcohol, and scrub.
It will take a few dips and some scrubbing, but it is the best method. I’ve tried Simple Green, Biokleen, vinegar, dish soap, crying…nothing else works. Ronsonol lighter fluid or Goof Off would probably work according to “handy man” sites, but I have not tried those on fabric.
After you give it a good scrub, let it dry. Feel it. If any sticky remains, give it a good scrub again with fresh alcohol.
Thanks for the info. I recently had a gunk problem which I used goof off to remove. It did work after several applications, but I didn’t like using it in fabric. Next time I will try the alcohol. I wonder if soaking the spray nozzle in alcohol would prevent it from gunking up in the first place. Think I will give it a try
yeah – I use a q-tip to clean out the nozzle with alcohol. I also use alcohol to clean machine parts on vintage sewing machines, get kid’s stickers off of things they shouldn’t be on, prevent mildew in my homemade house cleaning wipes solution, etc. It’s a pretty awesome all purpose cleaner.
I did soak the nozzle in alcohol and it worked like a charm. Spray comes out nice and even flow now. I mostly use it to adhere my fabric to water soluble stabilizer for machine embroidery. Much less expensive than the sticky back water soluble stabilizer.
You are absolutely has sterical I love you you sound like me. I am getting ready to try that because it is on the minky fabric and let you know how it came out . Thanks for the help.
😀 glad you like!
I am going to try it tonight. I have a small sticky spot, no fabric debris, but it is a customer quilt so I need it off. I was going to trim the border 1/4″ all around so what was left would be behind the binding.
It will work like a charm. I only buy the 99% alcohol now to clean all the gunkies. Labels off of jars, old machine grease on vintage machines & spray baste alike. Works great on the grease and in my tax bracket. 😀
50% did not work. Where can I get the 99%. Feels hard like dried glue. Reapplied 3 times.
Oh that’s a bummer. Yeah, I don’t think I’ve used 50% but I don’t suppose it would work… that’s more deodorizer strength.
I buy 99% at the drugstore or pharmacy section of grocery store. Depending on where you live, you may need to ask for it. It’s necessary anywhere they’d sell items for injection, such as insulin.
On my way to pick some up now.
Thank you