How to clean a leather jacket at home?

With the onset of cold weather everyone prepares warm clothes. Leather jackets, raincoats, sheepskin coats are very popular in our country among outerwear. Such things keep warm, they are comfortable, and they look beautiful, stylish and durable.

But there is a downside: various stains are clearly visible on leather clothes. To ensure that services in specialized dry cleaners do not ruin your budget, you should try to restore the look of your favorite product on your own. Folk remedies and funds from the supermarket will help you with this.

A leather jacket will look fresh and tidy, if you periodically carry out her simple care. It concerns products both from genuine leather, and from a leather substitute.

Depending on weather conditions and other factors, Cleaning the surface of the jacket should be done about once a month. To do this, it is enough to dilute the soap solution with the addition of a few drops of ammonia and gently wipe the entire surface. It is better to wipe with a soft cloth (eg, flannel) or a non-abrasive sponge, while squeezing well before wiping.

Do not rub hard and stretch the skin, otherwise, the product may be deformed after drying. After the soap solution you should gently wipe everything with clean water. The final stage in the planned care after drying the jacket is rubbing the surface to make it shine and soft. For this procedure, you can use a special tool for leather goods and leatherette or improvised materials: castor oil or glycerin.

When the jacket is very dirty, there is a desire to wash it in the washing machine. There are cases when a similar washing in an automatic machine did not spoil a leather product, but manufacturers often do not recommend it. Such experiments can permanently ruin your favorite and expensive thing. There are things from leatherette and eco-leather, which can be washed in a machine in a certain mode, but this must be indicated on the label in the section "Care".

Washing the top leather clothing at home permissible only for the lining and then - with great care. It is necessary to turn the jacket inside out, while trying to protect the skin from moisture as much as possible. Then you need to moisten the fabric of the lining well, rub it with a soap solution or a solution of powder / liquid detergent, and then thoroughly wash it all with clean water. Leave to dry the jacket in the same inverted state on the hangers at room temperature, avoiding direct sunlight and heating appliances.

Another option to wipe off a soiled bright or colored lining is unpick it and put it in a typewriter. But this option is suitable for those who can then sew it back independently. Dark colored linings can be wiped with a clean cloth moistened in water and vinegar.

If it is allowed to wash clothes made of leatherette in a typewriter by the manufacturer, then consider the following recommendations:

• It is better to wash things from the inside, to fasten the pockets and fasteners, to pull the belt out of the loops.
• Use liquid detergent, it is better rinsed.
• Choose delicate or hand wash mode.
• Do not use spin.
• The water temperature should be no higher than 30 degrees.
• After washing, wrap the item in a towel, let it soak into the fabric and then hang on the hanger to dry completely.

The hand wash of the faux leather jacket is almost the same as that of the machine; the temperature and detergent requirements are the same. For greater effect, you can add vinegar to the pelvis. And do not rub the thing, but rather use a washcloth. The drying process is the same as with machine wash.

There are a large number of ways to clean leather products at home from hard-to-remove stains that you can choose, depending on your capabilities. But regardless of the nature of the stain, you first need to clean the product from dirt and dust, properly wash with soapy water.

There is no universal cleaner for all types of stains, for each pollution there is a resistance. But at once we make a reservation that Any cleaner you choose is best to check on the skin that is on the inside, This applies especially to things painted in bright colors - red, yellow, green, pink. There is a possibility that the skin from which your jacket is stitched may not suffer contact with the preparation.

So:

• Scrubber, acetone will help to wipe off the paint. Clean the area of ​​contamination with a soft cloth moistened with a selected agent, and then wipe it with an emollient product such as glycerin, castor oil or a special cream for leather items. An unpleasant chemical smell will quickly go away if the cleaned clothes are left to be ventilated for a while in the fresh air. Get rid of the traces of mold will help gasoline, but it is better to take clean or aviation.
• The above chemical solvents are suitable for thick and rough skin. If your jacket is made of thin and soft leather, it is better to try more natural products. Take the chalk (you need to crumble to a powdery state), potato starch or talc, add a little water to make a thick, mushy solution. Apply the resulting compound to the stain and leave for a few hours.

• Another unpleasant type of stains that cannot be removed with soapy water is ink from a pen. The most noticeable such marks on light skin. It is easy to remove marks from a felt-tip pen or pen using a cotton pad dipped in medical alcohol. It will also help to remove greasy stains from food.
• Traces of salt and streaks that form after precipitation can be removed with the help of a very budget product that every hostess has. It is necessary to wipe the surface with a napkin soaked in vinegar.

• Blood is another difficult source of contamination. Wash it immediately with cold water and soap suds. An important point: removing such spots, you must move from the edge to the center, otherwise the area of ​​contamination will increase. The blood can still be cleaned with hydrogen peroxide, but before that try out its effect on the inside of the jacket. In addition to the above, you can remove traces of blood with an aspirin tablet dissolved in water.
• When removing stains on white things, it is necessary to be especially careful, there is a danger of a change of color to yellowish shades. Ordinary milk can come to the rescue: it will not leave smudges and stains on the jacket, besides, it has a softening effect. Here is another recipe for removing stains on clothes made of light skin: Mix 0.2 liters of water with 2 tablespoons of ammonia and 2 teaspoons of baking soda, and for a greater effect add a few drops of dish detergent to the mixture.Rub the stain with the resulting solution and leave for at least 30 minutes, then rinse with clean water.

• To remove old stains on leather items of black and brown color, there is another popular recipe for the cleaner: you need to mix the denatured alcohol and turpentine in equal parts, add a few drops of glycerin. Brush the resulting compound onto the dirt and rub it a little, then rinse with water. Be sure to use a soft bristled brush, an old toothbrush will work well.
• For colored leather products, it is better to use more natural ingredients. An ordinary onion can cope well with this. It is necessary to clear the contamination of the onion incision, the procedure should be carried out in several stages and at the same time the incision should be constantly updated. Finally wipe the jacket with a soft cloth.

If you do not clean the stains at home, it is better to use the services of a professional dry cleaner. But it is better to choose specialists according to recommendations of friends and acquaintances, there are cases of damage to products.

It is worth to talk separately about such contaminations that occur at the places of contact of the leather product with the host's skin. Most often suffer from fat and sweat collar, cuffs, pockets, clasp. Such stains are easy to remove by hand, for this there are several ways:

• Iron copes well with the removal of sebum. Put a paper napkin on the stain and gently iron it on the top with a heated iron. From the high temperature, the fat begins to evaporate from the jacket and soak into the napkin. But this method is not suitable for cleaning a jacket made of artificial leather, for it is better to use the second method.

• Alcohol copes with cleaning greasy greasy stains. You need to decompose the contaminated area on a flat surface, gently wipe with a cloth soaked in alcohol, then smear with lemon juice (it will help dissolve greasy traces) and complete the procedure of cleaning the jacket with a softening agent. In the absence of lemon juice, you can rub the jacket with an orange peel, it will give freshness and hide the rubbing. Remember: the use of orange peel is permissible only when cleaning a dark leather jacket.

Let's name some more home remedies that will be useful as home stain removers:

• Cleaning solution for LCD monitors. Such a solution can easily cope with fresh stains, since surfactants and alcohol are present in the composition of such agents. Moisten a cotton pad in the solution and wipe the stain.
• Coffee grounds. This gastronomic cleaner often used for shoes, but with things you can try it. Sprinkle coffee residue on the stain and let it sit for a while. After wipe the residue with a dry cloth.

• Plate cleaner. Sometimes, gel or plate spray is also used in the struggle for the cleanliness of outer clothing. Suitable for removing grease stains, but keep on the product does not cost more than 1 minute, and then you need to thoroughly wipe the place of application. Since these tools are very aggressive, carefully read the composition on the bottle and be sure to try on the wrong side of a leather product. If the color has not changed, you can start removing the stain.
• Egg white + lemon juice. This mixture is good to use for light leather things, it gives shine and can cope with some pollution.

• Vaseline. Plain petroleum jelly can save the shine of the lacquered surfaces of a leather jacket. Apply it on a cotton swab and wipe them dark traces.
• Ammonia + salt. Sometimes the spots are well removed with an aqueous solution, in which ammonia and fine salt (about 1 tablespoon each) are added.It is better to remove the dirt with a sponge, and after that you should rinse with water.
• Special cleaners. On sale there are various tools in the form of pencils, sprays, creams, napkins for removing stains in the home. As a rule, they do well with contaminations of plant and animal origin.

And so that you rarely have to resort to cleansing procedures, Here is a list of useful recommendations:

• Try to remove impurities immediately after they appear, preventing them from being deeply absorbed into the skin.
• After cleaning process leather clothes with special water-repellent agents.
• If the jacket is designed for winter and spring, then it is useful to polish it with wax. It will protect things from burnout in the sun and divorce, which can leave rain and snow.
• Small physical damage to leather products (scratches, cracks) eliminate the "liquid skin." Carefully pick the color and follow the instructions.
• You can remove bad odor by creating a “bath” for your jacket. Dial in the bathroom hot water, add one or two glasses of vinegar and leave the jacket hanging over the bath for about 3-4 hours.
• Weak soda solution will relieve the jacket from the smell of tobacco and sweat. Apply it better from the spray.

And here is a list of what should not be done with a leather jacket:

• Never dry your leather clothes near heating devices, do not use a hairdryer and an iron for this.
• Do not wear a wet leather thing, otherwise skin saturated with moisture may stretch.
• Do not abuse cleaning products, do not rub your favorite jacket every day and just in case. Excessive brushing can cause discoloration.
• Do not squeeze the thing by hand, spinning it.
• Do not touch the clothes immediately after using the hand cream; unwanted grease stains may remain.
• Do not wear bags of dark or colored leather with light leather clothing unless you are sure that they will not leave marks.
• Do not try to get rid of unpleasant odors (sweat, smoke, mold) with perfume. The smell not only will not go away, but will become even stronger.

We pay special attention to the storage of things. To avoid bruising and deformation, always hang jackets and coats on the shoulders. When the season is over your jacket’s socks, clean it and put it in the closet until the next season. Use fabric covers for storage, but not PVC.. And to protect against moths in your pocket, put a handkerchief, a piece of cloth, or a cotton pad onto which you want to put lavender oil.

How to clean a leather jacket at home, see the following video.