Getting Wax off Wool Jacket

So, I was in San Francisco for a literary festival and got to meet up with some friends. All was good until we hit a spot in the Mission District for our little after party.

The six of us were at a table next to the DJs, with their two turntables and a microphone (I know), and we were having a good time. This ended with one of the DJs deciding it would be a good idea to, for no particular reason, Superman on our table. Glass, alcohol, water and candle wax flew everywhere - my laptop bag (didn't bring the actual laptop; not that stupid) and my jacket took the brunt of the wax.

Beings that I live in Fresno, and I was going home the following day, taking it to a cleaners would not be feasible, and thus the wax had a good eighteen hours to dry. I got home late in the afternoon and it was just after seven in the evening when I finally, after some research online, got to work.

The jacket is a Pierre Cardin two-button, flat front suit.



I paid $229 for it (which I saved up through sales on eBay and a previous summer job). The lining is 100% polyester, and the shell is 100% wool. Luckily, the wax got only on the outside. It sprayed. I don't have any pictures of it before I began to work, but let's just say that, if you didn't know any better, you would've thought the jacket had a role to play in a porno. That's sort of how it looked.

Anyway, after doing some research (read: Google), I found a good idea that I could do with the tools I had. Basically, all I needed was:

• An iron
• An ironing board
• Two layers of paper towels

Here's what I did:

1. I layered the paper towels to be four sheets thick. So, two stacks of four. (probably a good idea to not tear them apart. I made the mistake and it was just a bit more messy than it needed to)
   
2. I put one layer underneath the cloth (no idea why, the reading just seemed to say it was a good idea) with the wax on it, and one on top of the waxed area itself.
   
3. Plugged the iron in, let it heat up. (Kicked on some tunes on the laptop to entertain myself.)
   
4. Once the iron was hot, I pretty much just ironed over the waxed portions of my coat, with the layer of paper towels in between the iron and the cloth. I didn't use any water at all.
   
5. Every so often, I would lift up the paper towels to see how I was doing, and maybe would flip the paper towels over. I've no idea if this does anything better - it just seemed like something Mom would do.
   
6. Once the wax was gone, I went over it once more just to make sure I got it all, because if you get it halfway, it'll blend in, unless you look at it at an angle to the lighting you've got, and then it'll shine a little bit.
   
7. Now that I'm done, I'm taking to get it dry cleaned.
   

And that's it! I'll probably add pictures of the materials - not necessary - but I don't have any pictures of the wax on my coat, unfortunately. I didn't get the idea of the blog until after I was done. So in the future, I'll remember.

So, that's all there is to it. It seemed like something that would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to do, but with a little bit of research, I got it done in about ten minutes. Now that I don't even have to read up on this, the next time a stoner decides to spill wax on my expensive (for me) coat, I'll have it taken care of in a snap!

--Logan