How to get the "sticky" off
 

I have a friend who made her first quilt. She thought it would be easy to mark her quilt (made with squares of Grandma's heirloom floral sheets) with masking tape. When she removed the tape, she was left with strips of sticky residue. Any idea how to clean it off?

Thanks for any help!

How disappointing for your friend.
I am always so hesitant in dealing with any sorts of marks or stains ... so no help here.

She had the right idea ... just the wrong product.

You might want to tell your friend to use Painter's Tape the next time.
It is "safe" as it doesn't leave the residue behind that you get from masking tape.
I use it in oh so many ways in my sewing room.

GooGone? I would definitely do a patch test first, though, to make sure it does not stain or bleach the vintage sheets.

When I was a kid, my mom used a product called "Carbona". I don't know if they even make it anymore. Again, she would need to do a patch test.

I actually bought Carbona for grease stains on my kitchen chairs at the supermarket in the household cleaners section. They have many many different types for each kind of stain you have. I don't know if they have one for goo, but it's worth checking into.

I use GooGone with great regularity, but do test on a scrap to see that the chemical does not harm the fabric. LQS sometimes sells a spot remover called Grandma's Spot remover which I use with success also.

She can try rubbing alcohol. I've also hear rubbing corn starch onto the adhesive. I would tell her to get some scrap fabric & see if she can reproduce the sticky mess on that, then use the scrap fabric to test removal methods.

This is good idea. Most often I use GooGone but not on fabric. Another thing you might try is paper sack or paper towel. Place the paper sack or paper towel on the spot and press an iron to see it the adhesive sticks to the paper. but do a sample piece first. Good luck!!

This will sound strange but it's safe and worth a try. Peanut butter removes gum so it might remove tape residue. Also, ice will harden gum so that it can be scraped off so that is a safe try also.

What about washing it using some sort of specialty detergent??? Tell her that painter's tape is the better product to use but I don't leave that on for long either.

I have used lighter fluid on "sticky" stuff. Test a small section. It washes out very nicely.