Got dry erase marker on some clothing or a piece of furniture? No worries! It’s not ruined! I’ll show you how to get dry erase marker out of clothes or other fabric easily!
I was chatting with one of my friends after church the other Sunday when my daughter came running over to tell me something. As I turned to answer her, I was horrified to discover bright red spots of marker several places on the front of the cream colored sweater dress that she was wearing.
Apparently, she and some of her friends were playing in a side room and were using the Expo dry erase markers to draw on the whiteboard. And bless her heart, she didn’t think about where all that marker went as she was moving around and her beautiful dress showed the results.
I know that often the longer a stain sets, the harder it is to treat. So as soon as we got home, I got to work trying to figure out if there was any chance of saving the dress. With little hope, I tried Fels Naptha, my favorite inexpensive stain treater that typically will remove almost any stain, but of course, it did nothing.
Then just in case, I also experimented with Shout and some Fuller Brush stain remover that I had on hand. Neither did a thing.
Thankfully, one of my mom friends heard about the dilemma and came to my rescue! Her daughter had recently gotten dry erase marker on their white couch, and after trying different things, she discovered that Murphy’s Oil Soap did the trick!
Who would have known, right?! I figured if it did the trick on their white couch, then I had a pretty good chance of it working on my daughter’s sweater dress too.
And hurray, hurray! It did the trick! I could hardly believe it, but it removed every trace of dry erase marker on that dress. It almost felt like I was performing a magic trick as I watched it lift it away from the fabric.
I didn’t think to take pictures of the process when I treated the original dress but decided to write on another dress with dry erase markers and show you how Murphy’s Oil took it out. Because I’d love if I can help another person that feel desperate because they fear a piece of clothing (or a couch!) is ruined by dry erase marker!
How to Get Dry Erase Marker Out of Clothes
1. You’ve probably already tried this, but before doing anything else, try seeing if scrubbing the marker stain with just water will remove any of the marker. In this particular piece of clothing, a lot of the marker actually came out (probably because it was a washable dry erase marker). What you see in the picture above is the only stain that was left.
But in the case of my daughter’s white sweater dress that I mentioned earlier, running it under water did nothing. The stain didn’t even lighten slightly.
2. Dab a tiny bit of Murphy’s Oil Soap onto the marker stain and use your fingernail to gently rub it into the stain. If you want, you can let it set a little bit to allow the soap to really penetrate the stain.
3. Rinse well and if the stain is still visible at all. Repeat step 2 again.
With this dress, I only had to do two applications of Murphy’s Oil. With the stain my daughter’s first dress, I had to do more like three or four on a couple of the dry erase marker stains before they were gone.
4. Wash as you normally would and enjoy feeling like a magician! 🙂
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Donna
I am a math teacher who uses dry erase markers all day, every day! Until recently, I have never had a problem with getting marker on me. I have had ink pen marks, which I usually get out with hand sanitizer or hair spray.
One day, I was using a Crayola blue dry erase marker and it leaked on my favorite dress.I ended up with 6 dark spots on my the top of my light blue dress, the largest being pea-sized. Of course, when I got home, I tried the hand sanitizer and hairspray, which didn’t work. I stopped trying to get the marker out because I didn’t have time to keep trying.
The next day, I get my markers out, remove the leaking blue one and teach my first class. At some point between my first and second class, the offending marker got mixed back in with my markers. I have two of the same blue marker. I picked up a blue marker and ended up with blue spots all over my brand new green top. I was not happy!!!!
When I got home, I again tried the hand sanitizer/hairspray tricks. No luck. I went to my old standby, blue Dawn, of which I keep a small bottle of in the master bath just for my clothes! The Dawn didn’t work. I tried the OxyClean stain remover, which didn’t work. I thought the top and the dress were ruined. It was the end of the school year and things were crazy, so I put them both in the laundry room and forgot them for a couple of weeks.
When I remembered them, I did some internet research and came across your blog recommending Murphy’s Oil Soap. I ordered a bottle from Amazon. It arrived just as I was preparing for visitors, so I didn’t have time to test it. Today, as I am getting clothes ready to go to a conference this coming week, I remembered my favorite dress. I decided to try the Murphy’s. I didn’t have high hopes. When I put the soap on the dress, nothing happened. I thought it would be like the hair spray and start to disolve it, but it didn’t. I reread your post and your directions and followed them. The marker come out of the top after three applications and it came out of the dress after about six! While doing the dress, I found two small spots of red marker, which came out with two applications.
Thank you for your suggestion! I really thought that both of the pieces were no longer going to be wearable!!! I will definitely be sharing this tip with others!
Lydia Beiler
Donna, this makes me so happy!! I am so glad that your favorite dress and new top could both be saved by using this method. {Big sigh of relief} Also, thanks for all your hard work as a teacher too…you teachers truly are amazing and are helping to impact the next generation and I applaud you!
Kati Kiefer
Oh my word I can’t believe this WORKED! I was super skeptical but in seconds it got blue dry erase marker out of white shoelaces. Normally I wouldn’t even care about shoelaces, but they are my teen son’s and these were brand new converse, LOL. Thank you for the great post.
Lydia Beiler
Yay for saved shoelaces! Glad it was helpful.
Chloe
My 2 year old colored all over her new white Valentine’s Day cardigan with red dry erase marker… I was so upset! Til I found this post and i am sooo happy that this worked!!
Lydia Beiler
Oh, Chloe! I know that sinking feeling when you discover that your clothes were drawn on. So, so glad you found this and were able to save your new cardigan!!