How to Remove Fused Residue from Your Iron

In this post, I’ll share one of my favorite tools for easily cleaning any sticky, fused residue off of your iron. Fusible fabric, interfacing, and hem tape make sewing so much easier, but they come with the downside of sometimes accidentally sticking to your iron. No one wants to have a gunky iron with melted interfacing, foam, felt, wonder tape, or webbing on it. Here’s how to remove it!

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Backstory: I was using some one-sided fusible foam interfacing recently, and even though I thought I'd checked it carefully, I still managed to fuse a chunk of it to my iron because apparently the universe hates me. (Seriously, though, I check it obsessively to make sure the bumpy side is facing down--how does this keep happening?!)

I do most of my sewing and blogging on evenings and weekends, putting most of my spare time toward crafts, but this means I'm often sewing while tired or SWT. I make a lot of mistakes when I'm SWT. I've fused my interfacing to my iron more times than I'd like to admit.

This sewing hack might seem simple or obvious to some, but I also answer questions on Hometalk as an "expert" (I use the term loosely—that's just what they call me), and I have come to realize that many people do not know about the magic of Goo Gone.

Goo Gone is good for many things, but it's especially good at removing interfacing that you've welded onto your iron. Just unplug your iron, let it cool down completely, put some Goo Gone on a paper towel or cleaning rag, and gently rub until the residue is gone.

You don't want to scrub at the interfacing or use anything abrasive because you want your iron's surface to remain smooth and flat. This method won't scrape up your iron at all. You also don't want to soak your iron because it's electric, and you don't want to submerge all of those components. This is the most pain-free method I've found for cleaning your iron.

As you can see, my Rowenta iron is still in pretty good shape despite the abuse it receives from me. Sorry for the weird angle—it’s hard to take a good picture of a shiny surface!

This method works for fusible interfacing, foam, batting, hem tape, etc. Anything that needs to be fused can get stuck to your iron, and if it does, Goo Gone will help. Goo Gone's also great for removing old sticker and price tag residue. It's a staple in my craft room.