The most common approach to get rid of screen printing of clothing is to soak a cotton ball in nail polish remover and apply it. Other simple solutions include melting the print with an iron and a paper bag or using a sugar scrub to scrape it away. Some textiles need particular attention when removing the design without damaging the fabric.
- Acetone
- Nail Polish Remover
- Iron and Paper Bag
- Coldwater Rinse and Sugar Scrub
- Pressure Water Sprayer
- Plastisol Remover
- Fade with Washing
- Coldwater Rinse While Printing
If the fabric is more than 50% polyester, skip this method and scroll down to the section on synthetic fabrics.
If your fabric is mostly cotton or another tough fabric like denim, you can try any of these methods.
If your design is new, try washing it in cold water before you put it on. Coldwater tightens the ink, and that can help. If that doesn’t work, soak the garment in a mixture of cold water and mild laundry detergent. Soak it for at least an hour, and then scrub with a hard bristle brush to loosen any remaining ink. Rinse in cold water until all the soap is gone.
Soak paper towels in acetone if you’re working on one part of a multi-colored design or article of clothing. Dab at the spot with the soaked towel until it’s clean. Repeat if necessary, but be sure to wear gloves when using acetone or nail polish remover.
Put cotton balls at the center of every print on your garment, soak them with nail polish remover, and let them sit for 10 minutes. Scrub with a toothbrush until all the print comes off. If a certain area needs a bit more cleaning, apply acetone with an old toothbrush instead.
Set your iron to the cotton setting and place a paper bag between the article of clothing and the ironing board. Iron over the design until it begins to melt, then let it cool and pull off any remaining pieces with wooden toothpicks. Cover another part of the garment in acetone or nail polish remover if necessary.
Fill your washing machine with cold water, add detergent if necessary, and set to its longest cycle — this will tighten any ink that has already set into the material, making it difficult to get off later. If you want even more ink to come out while you wash, add vinegar instead of fabric softener. Spray or dab some sugar scrub onto each area where there’s printing and use an old toothbrush to gather suds that cover the design. Scrub in a circular motion and rinse off when you’re finished.
Spray your garment with pressure water from a garden hose to remove the print. If you don’t want to get wet, use a spray bottle filled with water instead.
You can also buy commercial remover for plastisol ink, available at many art supply stores. Alternatively, you can mix 10% ammonia and 90% water in a spray bottle or bucket (depending on the size of your project) to prepare your own remover.
When you wash your garment, rub the design with a fabric softener to fade it. If that doesn’t work, run a dryer sheet over the printed area and then handwash and air-dry the garment.
If you’re printing designs onto the same article of clothing over and over, prepare a bucket or sink with cold water. Print your design like normal, then immediately rinse it in the cold water afterward to tighten the ink before it has a chance to set into the material.
This guide will show you a few tips that you can use to fix or remove a screen print from a shirt, sweatshirt, or any other fabric.
You may want to touch up or get rid of unwanted smears you inadvertently made on the garment, so there are a few things you can do to fix or get rid of the image even though screen printed inks are supposed to be permanent.
Your customer decided he didn’t like the logos you printed on the totes, shirts or other garments. So what do you do? You wonder how to remove logos from clothing, so you can try again. Luckily, these images are quite small so you may be able to save the garment and remove the logo.
- Cold Water
- Warm water
- Kraft paper
- Clothing iron
realize there is something wrong with the logo. Rinse the fabric in cold water immediately. This could remove all of the logo ink on the fabric. Just make sure it is cold water and not hot, as hot water makes the ink set faster.
Once you have rinsed the fabric thoroughly, you can steep the fabric in warm water and let the fabric dry thoroughly. Once dry, you may notice that there is slight ink staining. Once completely dry you can place kraft paper (like paper bag paper) over the shirt and using an iron without steam heat the paper over the logo area. The heat will draw out the ink from the shirt and into the paper.
Using an iron without steam, heat the part of the paper bag lying over the part of the shirt that has ink. Keep using the iron over the paper to remove leftover ink. Use new paper when the paper becomes saturated.
If there is still a little ink left on the shirt, dampen the fabric with a little water then place some sugar on the stain and scrub it gently. Rinse again and let dry. By now, you should have removed the entire logo.
Like removing a logo, you can also remove screen printing from a sweatshirt in the same way. Use cold water to rub out as much of the ink as possible, then rinse with warm water and let dry. Once dry, place kraft paper over the image and iron it out. Scrub with damp sugar to get the remaining stain out.
But what if that still doesn’t work and it leaves you still wondering how to remove screen printing from sweatshirts. You just don’t have that much $ to reinvest in new sweatshirts. Now there is ink in the heavy sweatshirt fibers, and you don’t know what to do. Don’t worry! There are options available to you.
Ok so if there is still ink set in the sweatshirt after completing the removal process you can use a bit of acetone and a swab, or if the ink is extensive you can place a bit of acetone on a lint-free cloth and rub the sweatshirt to remove the stain. Keep in mind that acetone or nail polish remover might cause a little discoloration in a sweatshirt so you need to try it over a hidden area first. Place a piece of cardboard inside the sweatshirt to avoid getting ink on other areas of the fabric then add a drop of nail polish remover to a small area of the design and work it in with your fingers. Use a soft brush or cloth to rub out the design.
If the fabric color doesn’t bleed with your initial test, apply the nail polish remover to the entire print and let it sit for about 15 to 30 minutes. Then use a soft cloth or brush to rub the design out. Work quickly to ensure that the acetone still works and doesn’t dry out. When you finish launder the sweatshirt according to the washing instructions on the sweatshirt. Avoid using the dryer to dry the sweatshirt as the heat sets the color. Air-dry it instead. So you can repeat the process if all of the ink did not come out.
Still not good enough? At this point, you’ll need to use a bit of spot fluid remover like SR-97 and then use a water pressure gun to wash the ink out of the sweatshirt. You can get this cleaning fluid from a screen printing material supplier. Use the cleaning fluid in a special spot cleaning gun to remove the ink quickly from the sweatshirt. Although this method will cost a bit more, it is probably the best way to remove screen printing inks quickly. It has several advantages which include:
No yellowing or wringing of the sweatshirtfast drying
immediate removal of ink and adhesive