How to Get Spray Paint Out of Fabric

Living in an apartment–with no yard, private porch, or garage–means that I don’t always follow the rules when it comes to crafting. In an Appalachian summer, you don’t even need to live in an apartment–it’s far too humid outside for paint to dry. Which means I wound up ventilating my office so I could spray paint a couple days ago.

I opened all the windows in the apartment, put a fan in the office window, and turned the exhaust up high. If I had really been thinking, I would have done two other things. 1) Set my standing fan up in the entrance to the office for more air flow, and 2) …lay down a tarp. I can’t believe I forgot to do that second one.

So I got spray paint everywhere. Fortunately, I missed the walls and carpet, though that’s only because my office is so cluttered that I couldn’t have possibly gotten the carpet (which is an unfortunate reason). However, I did get my blanket, my modem, my laptop, my nightstand, and my favorite pink corduroy bag.

I bought the bag during my first week of college at the university’s book store. It came in teal, beige, and pink. Usually, I don’t like pink, but this one was quite attractive to me. And apparently made me stand out–most of my fellow students knew how to recognize me by the pink corduroy bag. All four years.

I still use it! I love this bag and I’ll be quite upset if it ever falls apart. You would think that getting spray paint on it would be a huge bummer for me. But when it was only a dusting (not full-on paint), my initial reaction was, “I can fix this. I hope.”

So I did.

After a quick Google search, I decided to try the Hair Spray Method.

How it works:

Step 01: Get your hair spray and cover a section the fabric in it. (Any kind will work. I used the Herbal Essences spray that I’ve had for over five years that really needs thrown out…I obviously don’t use hair spray very often.)

Step 02: Take a dry washcloth and rub the fabric vigorously. If it’s working, you should see a small difference.

Step 03: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you’ve gotten every part of the sprayed area. Then throw it in the washer and wash it like you normally would.

Step 04: Remove the fabric from the washer and check it. If it looks like the paint is gone, throw it in the dryer. If there is still paint, let it air dry and then start the process over.

This worked immediately for me, but I only had a dusting. It was a very noticeable dusting, but still…it wasn’t like I sprayed the bag straight on. If you have larger or thicker spots of paint on your fabric, you’re going to have a more difficult time of it. Especially if it’s been sitting for a while, so the quicker you get to it, the better it will turn out.

If you don’t start to see a difference after 2 or 3 washes, you should probably give up on it.

My bag looks good as new, though!

FYI, I found an old camera in my desk (I haven’t used it since 2007!) that I’m using until I get my regular camera back from my mom. Until then, I’ll be using a mixture of my old Kodak (it’s so chunky, I can’t even believe it!) and my phone camera.

(It still runs on AA batteries! Can you believe that? I totally forgot about this thing. I wonder how long the batteries will last in it….)

Oh! And hopefully by the end of the month, Zach and I will have an Office Project to show you. Our office is so cluttered, plus we’re trying to move his stuff into it (his computer stuff has been sitting in the living room for three years), so there’s that to look forward to. 😀