How to clean a leather jacket at home: simple and effective methods

Leather clothing amazingly transforms a woman! Even if a mature lady puts on a leather skirt, jacket or sundress, she will seem to become younger. And what can we say about young fashionistas! Especially this season, when leather clothing has become one of the main fashion trends. Modern natural and artificial leather is well-made, pleasant to the touch, and beautiful in appearance. It fits well into a woman's wardrobe and is appropriate in different styles and situations.

One thing is annoying: such products cannot be thrown into the drum of the washing machine to freshen them . And while ladies have learned to cope with caring for leather uppers, some have problems with the lining. In fact, it's not that complicated. We will tell you how to properly care for her.

General recommendations for cleaning leather jackets at home

To avoid damage, cleaning a leather jacket is carried out carefully, so it is better to entrust this task to specialists. But you will have to pay a tidy sum for their services. If you still want to skip dry cleaning and do everything yourself, pay attention to the following tips:

• If the jacket gets wet from snow or rain, it does not need to be put on and cleaned, as the product may stretch. Therefore, first it is blotted with a towel and dried at home at the temperature of the living room;
• Removing a fresh stain is much easier and more effective, so dirt needs to be removed quickly;
• The leather should not be ironed, but the lining should be ironed using a warm iron through gauze folded in several layers;

• Washing a leather jacket is not recommended (either in a machine or by hand), and rubbing it with force is also not recommended. Delicate washing is possible if there is a special symbol on the tag;
• The surface can be damaged by aggressive cleaning substances (gasoline and other solvents), so if you want to try cleaning your jacket with them, first test their effect on a small piece in an inconspicuous place;
• After wet cleaning, the item of clothing is wiped dry with a soft dry cloth and lubricated with castor oil or cream (vaseline) to avoid deformation and cracks;
• The cleaning agent is selected depending on the degree of contamination of the item and its type.

How to make sure you don't have to clean it often

Leather jackets should hang in the closet on wide, rounded hangers

As you know, prevention is the most effective way to solve problems of any nature. So this is true for leather items too. It is better to constantly properly care for the product than to periodically wonder how to clean it.

• To store the jacket, choose a place with normal humidity, away from heating devices.
• If water gets on your skin, dry the jacket on wide hangers. Please note that before drying, you need to remove all the contents from your pockets, otherwise the item may stretch under this weight.
• Once a season, we wipe the jacket with a damp cloth to remove dust.
• We try to remove stains in a timely manner.

Expert advice - video

Periodically cleaning leather jackets from small stains and dust

• You can get rid of dirt and dust by regularly wiping the product with a soft sponge moistened with soapy water or warm water. For a good effect, it is recommended to add 20-25 drops of ammonia (per half a liter of liquid). Next, the remaining soap solution is washed off with water, the surface of the wardrobe item is wiped dry and lubricated with cream;

• Thin and soft leather is cleaned with a dry rag or wiped with milk, then blotted with a napkin and lubricated with warm glycerin.

Special means

Sprays designed for leather care not only remove dust and dirt, but also disinfect and renew clothes. For convenience, most products of this class are available in spray bottles, which greatly simplifies the work.

It is also possible to restore the tarnished coating using various aerosol paints and remove minor scratches with a product that comes in the form of liquid leather. Among household chemicals, there is a wide selection of water-repellent compounds designed to protect against the negative effects of water.

How to remove difficult and old stains from leather leather

We clean and lubricate a heavily soiled product using special factory-made impregnations and creams that can give the material water-repellent properties, brightness, softness and shine. You can also use proven folk methods:

• You can clean the collar of a leather jacket (if it is shiny), cuffs, and small greasy spots if you use any of the following products: a cotton pad with lukewarm glycerin, damp baking soda, dishwashing liquid, makeup remover milk;
• Large or old grease stains can be cleaned with a rag soaked in vinegar, turpentine, gasoline or alcohol;

• Turpentine, gasoline, acetone, and white spirit will help get rid of paint or mold on clothes. But this must be done with caution, having first checked how the skin will react to these aggressive substances. After processing, a dark jacket is rubbed with orange peel, a light jacket with lemon peel, then dried and lubricated with glycerin;
• Thin leather items cannot be cleaned with gasoline. Grease stains are removed with talc, chalk or starch diluted in water. The gruel is applied to the contaminated area for 20-30 minutes, then brushed off with a clothes brush, and the surface is lubricated with castor oil.

Removing stains

We will not describe how to use stain removers; information about this is in the instructions from the manufacturer. Let us tell you what available means you can cope with various contaminants:

• To remove grease stains or glue marks, soak a cloth in gasoline or white spirit and gently wipe the stained area.

• Baby massage oil will help remove paint marks.

• If you soak a napkin in alcohol, you can easily remove ink stains.

• Remove dirt remaining after rain or snow with a soft sponge soaked in vinegar.

• The following tip will help you clean and refresh the color of a brown jacket: wrap coffee grounds in a clean rag, lightly wet them with water and wipe the entire surface. Instead of coffee, you can also use a bag of black tea.

• Wash fresh blood stains with cool soapy water. Hydrogen peroxide helps a lot: soak a cotton pad in the liquid and wipe the stain, moving from its edges to the center.

Cleaning light and white leather products

You can clean a light leather jacket with a product that does not leave yellow spots or streaks. These include: lemon juice, cow's milk, talcum powder, egg white, dish detergent (without color).

• To make a white jacket look like new, it is treated with a napkin dipped in milk. This will give the skin shine and softness, brighten it;
• A yellowed white leather jacket is bleached with lemon juice, wiped and hung on hangers until dry;
• Lemon is not suitable for clothes of other colors, and it should not be used often either - the sour juice can harm the skin;

• Simple stains are removed from a light-colored item using egg white, which at the same time gives it shine. The protein is whipped, applied to the material until it dries, then washed off with warm water;
• To clean a white jacket from small grease stains, take soapy water with ammonia or a solution of dishwashing detergent;
• A mixture of talc with gasoline or turpentine will remove complex stains. The problem area is treated with a thick solution, glass is placed on it, and pressed with a press. After the mixture has dried, the material is cleaned with a soft brush, wiped with a damp sponge, and lubricated with glycerin.

Drying rules

You need to dry your jacket after the slightest contact with moisture. You can put the item on only after it has completely dried, otherwise the material will deform, especially at the folds. How to properly dry a leather jacket after washing:

• lay the jacket on a wire rack to remove excess moisture;
• place dry towels in the sleeves, fasten all the zippers and lay the clothes on thick fabric, change the bedding as it gets wet;
• when the material is almost dry, hang the jacket on the trempel, level it;
• After drying, treat the fabric with glycerin.

Cleaning and washing the lining

The dirty lining of the product is washed very carefully; it is important to avoid getting water on the skin. The ideal option would be to first tear off the lining, wash, dry, iron and sew. It is not always possible to cope well with such a labor-intensive task, so it is better to use dry cleaning services.

If the contamination is minor, you can clean the lining of a leather jacket in the following way:

1. We turn the item inside out and hang it on hangers;
2. Dissolve the washing powder in warm water;
3. We carefully clean dirty areas using a clothes brush moistened with diluted powder;
4. We wash off the powder composition from the fabric with a sponge moistened with a weak vinegar solution and blot the lining with a towel;
5. We place your favorite item on a hanger and dry it without using heating objects, then ventilate it in the fresh air.

If there are greasy stains on the lining material, they are removed with vinegar, then the fabric needs to be washed. If both the lining and the outer layer of the product are dirty, you should first wash the lining and then clean the leather.

Removing grease stains

Quite often there are situations when untidy greasy stains appear on outerwear. To clean a leather jacket from them at home, the following methods will help:

• Hot air. To process the product, you can use a regular hairdryer; under the influence of high temperatures, the fat actively dissolves. To clean the stained area, place a paper kitchen towel over it and give it a good hair dryer. The main thing is to make sure that the temperature of the supplied air is not too hot, this can lead to shrinkage of the skin.
• Starch or chalk paste. To prepare it, you will need to mix the powder with water until a creamy consistency is obtained. To get rid of contamination, you need to apply the resulting mass to the stained area and leave it for active action for four to five hours. If the stain is old, you can leave the jacket overnight in this condition. Then you will need to rinse off the remaining product with clean water.

How to remove an unpleasant smell from a jacket

Here's what you can do to clean your leather jacket to remove various unpleasant odors:

• To rid a piece of clothing of sweat that has been absorbed into the skin, fill the bathtub with hot water and pour in a glass of vinegar. We hang the item upside down on hangers over the water and leave it in the bathroom, the door of which is tightly closed. There will be no smell of sweat after hanging the item over steam for two hours;
• If the jacket is thin, excess moisture will not do it any good. Sprinkle bad-smelling areas with baking soda moistened with water. For an item soaked in tobacco smoke, the entire lining is sprinkled with wet soda, and after drying it is shaken off;

• Freshly ground coffee, which is sprinkled on the entire leather product, helps perfectly against the smell, and after a day the powder is shaken off;
• Orange zest also helps eliminate the unpleasant aroma of sweat, smoking or other stench. The outer part of the crusts is used to rub the skin;
• Oranges and coffee are not suitable for light-colored products; they can color the material.

Leather care

If the surface of the product has lost its softness, has become rough and dry, and has also become dull and acquired microcracks, you can give it elasticity and color using aerosol paint for leather or using homemade methods.

To restore shine and softness, use:

• Beaten egg white;
• Warmed glycerin;
• Sliced ​​onion;
• Fresh lemon cut;
• Coffee grounds wrapped in soft cloth;
• Orange peel.

After treatment, rub the surface of the product until it shines with a soft cloth, lubricate it with glycerin, colorless cream (for skin) or castor oil.

Taking good care of the jacket will yield results - it will warm and delight its owner for many years.