Plastic melted into fabric...oops

[Famous Graham]

Does anyone know if the iron+paper trick for wax works on plastic as well? It's "just" polythene from a bag, and the unfortunate clobber is a wool jacket (very tight weave).

Ta.

[Shaw Tarse]

Not sure, if you have nothing to loose then give it a go, warm iron not hot!

[lady topaz]

Dont think you have a hope. You could try freezing garment and picking it off or I think a solvent is your only hope but could ruin fabric. Molten plastic is not good.

[sinizter]

Pretty sure that only works for wax. Paper won't absorb the plastic like it will for the wax.

[parakitaMol.]

Second thoughts.......


Buy a new jumper

Edited by parakitaMol. on Friday 29th January 20:05

[Famous Graham]

Yeah, I have, but I can only find references to wax, hence asking around specifically about plastic.

I kind of understood the point of the paper

[Neil H]

I think dissolving it with a solvent would be a better bet, something like acetone maybe? IANA Chemist.

[tricky1962]

I doubt paper is going to work. Wax turns to a liquid at quite a low temperature and so can be soaked up by the paper, polythene will only soften at those temperatures so this technique wouldn't work.

I suggest dry cleaning, it may use the types of solvents that dissolve polythene.

Best of luck

[parakitaMol.]

Is it a jumper like this:

Edited by parakitaMol. on Friday 29th January 20:10

[Famous Graham]

No, a jacket.

A hired jacket.

Bugger.

[Eggman]

Sound like some experimentation is required. According to this, polythene is pretty much insoluble - although I did find somewhere else that said it'll dissolve in Benzene under heat and pressure. Benzene is nasty stuff, so I wouldn't go stuffing your jacket into an old pressure cooker just yet.

The same article also says that polythene goes runny at 115C. The wool setting on an iron is 166C, so that sounds promising. I suggest cutting some squares out of a carrier bag and putting one in an oven preheated to gas mark 1 (140C). If the results are favourable, rather than risking the jacket straight away I would melt one of the squares into an old woolen glove (or similar) and try putting it in the oven with something heavy on top and a cloth underneath facing the plastic, then see what it looks like after 30 minutes or so. Repeat, trying different things, until success results or disaster strikes.

[tricky1962]

That article refers to a "low viscosity melt" which I would suggest may be more like treacle than runny.

Wikipedia says here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene that it dissolves in aromatic hydrocarbons (not what you really want to be playing with) and chlorinated solvents (which are the kind of thing they used to use in dry cleaning).

Drop it off at the cleaners and see what they say

[spikeyhead]

Blast it with a good strong dose of UV radiation and it will break down.

It will probably also remove all the dye from the jacket too.