How to clean a leather jacket at home?

A leather jacket is a durable and practical thing. It is warm in it, it perfectly protects from the wind, and with modern abundance of models and styles, even the pickiest customer will be able to choose the option to your taste. The only thing we rarely think about when acquiring a new thing is the need to regularly take care of it and clean it in a timely manner, without letting stains of various origin spoil the appearance of the product.

Genuine leather is extremely sensitive to contact with any substance, be it simple water or an artificial chemical compound. The fact is that leather products owe their beauty to the animal fats they contain, and the washing out of these fats has a negative and sometimes destructive effect on their appearance. And it is unlikely that it will be possible to return things to aesthetics - natural leather will lose its softness and shine at best, and at worst it will begin to become covered with cracks and stretch.

Skin substitutes, which are also impregnated with oils, although less quality, often lose their color after improper cleansing.

Handle leather jacket recommended not entirely, but only directly in the places of pollution. And another rule for leather things - to clean them with the use of any cleaning products is necessary only when absolutely necessary, do it regularly, for "prevention" is unacceptable.

As with any other clothing, dust particles are deposited on the leather jacket, leaving traces of raindrops and slush spray. These are light pollution, for which removal it is not necessary to apply a lot of effort, and to use expensive means. The same applies to traces of ordinary chalk, which are also quite easy to scrub.

It is a little more difficult to eliminate “salt” stains, stains from paint or ink, scuffs, but there are also proven means. Often, on a leather jacket found fat traces, which are removed the harder, the more their "age".

Another problem is the blood stains of both fresh and absorbed. But most of all troubles deliver collars, cuffs, place fasteners and the upper part of the pockets. The fact is that it is these problem areas that come into direct contact with human skin, which, as we know, produces sweat.

Constantly in contact with it, leather products are salted, their surface darkens and becomes unnatural shine. But with this kind of pollution can be fought. The main thing is not to start problem areas and clean them properly.

So, let's see what are the ways to clean the leather jacket efficiently and with little effort:

• Simple pollutionDaily remaining on the surface of a leather jacket, such as traces of dust, rain droplets or chalk, are easily removed with ordinary water. Moisten a small piece of cloth with warm water and simply wipe the skin. Perform this procedure at least once a month. In no case do not wear a jacket immediately after cleaning, as wearing it in wet or wet form inevitably leads to deformation and damage to the material. Instead, hang the item on the hanger and dry it completely.

• If you notice that in some places on the jacket formed scuffs, use the help of ordinary glycerin, which you can buy at the pharmacy. Take a cotton swab, soak it in glycerin and carefully treat all worn areas. If the jacket is of a dark color (for example, brown or black), it is possible not to waste money on glycerin - the orange peel will successfully replace it.
• If the jacket has suffered from paint, You can use any means to remove nail polish. The main thing that among its ingredients was not acetone. Take a piece of sponge or a small cosmetic sponge and, wetting it with a little prepared means, start with a little effort to erase stains from the paint. Here there is an important nuance - you need to remove the paint from the edges of the spot to its center. If you do the opposite, the skin will get stains, and cleansing will take longer.

• Fresh traces of fat completely go if you treat them with any quality dishwashing detergent. Just wet them with a rag and blot the problem area - the fat will be removed. This is a completely safe way, but it is unlikely to help if the spot has been planted long ago. In this case, you can use your choice: white spirit, a mixture of ammonia and soap solution, or mixed acetone and alcohol. Just wet the cotton pad and treat the greasy stain. Here the already used substances are not so harmless, therefore, no matter what you choose, be sure to test the product on a small invisible skin area before applying.
• Ink marks - also not a sentence for leather goods. There are two good ways to remove them. The first is suitable if you have something to temporarily replace a damaged jacket. Take ordinary salt, pour it abundantly on the stain. Moisten salt with water on top. It needs to be slightly moistened so that it becomes hydrated, and not moist. Now you need to give salt to act on a greasy stain for two days, after which it can be simply shaken off, and rub the place where the ink was to the gloss with a sponge moistened in turpentine.

• If the leather jacket needs to be erased blood stain, the method of cleaning will depend on the time of its appearance. If you just got dirty, you can use a mixture of water and liquid soap. Pour them into one container, mix and foam a little. After this, soak in the resulting solution and squeeze the sponge well. Wet sponge need to carefully promakivat, but do not rub the problem area. Friction can have the opposite effect - blood will only be absorbed deeper into the skin, and the spot will increase in size. Completely flush the blood, remove the remnants of the soap solution with a damp cloth.

• Old blood stains with a leather jacket can be derived hydrogen peroxide. Moisten a little piece of soft terry cloth and apply a few drops of peroxide on it. Then blot the place where the blood has entered, but do not rub. Now you need to wait for a chemical reaction. Contacting with blood, hydrogen peroxide decomposes, forming oxygen and water. That is why in the treatment of wounds, we observe the formation of many small bubbles. Exactly the same should appear on the material of the jacket - they will bring blood particles onto its surface, after which you can simply wipe them off with a dry terry cloth.

• Strong greasy places we process it in the following order: first with medical alcohol, then lemon juice, and at the end, to return the skin's softness, glycerin.For processing, you can use sponge or cotton pads. Another way, more gentle, rubbing milk to remove makeup.

Sometimes a leather jacket is soiled that it requires washing in its entirety. The choice of means for this directly depends on the type of pollution, as well as the thickness and strength of the material, because the skin of different animals, like different leather substitutes, is very different in these indicators. A soap solution is suitable for washing thin skin, and if you wash your jacket in an automatic machine, then Only special liquid product for leather goods. If the skin is thick enough, then you can take the usual washing powder, but the amount should be reduced by half.

Light skin should be cleaned very carefully. Removing stains from eco-leather with fur is not that difficult. Even a red ballpoint pen can be removed.

Kozhzam things and the lining of the house can be quite well cleaned. Most people believe that you can wash your leather jacket exclusively by hand. Yes, and the manufacturers themselves warn that machine wash for such things is contraindicated. However, many housewives who had washed the leather jacket in an automatic machine received an excellent result. Perhaps the whole thing is not the fact of using the washing machine, but how to do it. Let's consider both ways - manual and machine.

Before you wash the leather jacket, it is advisable to check how this particular material generally reacts to water. To get started, just soak a clean white cloth, squeeze it well, and with a little effort rub the skin on some hidden area. If, even after such light manipulations, the fabric changes shade, it means that the product cannot be washed either in a typewriter or manually.

If the skin has withstood this test, proceed to the next stage of testing - take a spare shred, sewn from the inside of the jacket, and wash it as you are about to wash the jacket itself. If the shred has sat down, wrinkled, or deformed, discard this cleaning method and wash the thing manually with more gentle means.

So, the material of your jacket responded normally to the water and the selected detergent in the machine. So you can proceed to the process itself:

1. Be sure to fasten all available rivets, zippers and buttons.
2. Turn the thing itself on the wrong side - so you will prevent the metal drum from contacting the leather surface, which will help prevent damage to it.
3. Wash a leather jacket with a couple of soft things of the same color as it - this will also help reduce the aggressive effects on the skin.
4. Set gentle operation using cold water and the shortest spin-free washing time.

If the label of a leather jacket expressly states that you can only wash it with your hands, you should not go against this recommendation. In fact, this process is not so time consuming:

1. In a suitable size container, pour in warm water and dissolve in it a quarter cup of 9% vinegar.
2. There also add the selected detergent with the calculation of a tablespoon of the product per liter of water. This may be a liquid soap, a special product for washing leather products or ordinary dishwashing liquid.
3. Put the jacket in a container with water.
4. Take a sponge and put on it a bit of the means that you added to the water.
5. Light movements without strong pressure to wipe the entire leather surface of the jacket.
6. When finished with the wash, remove the jacket, dumbly squeeze out excess water without twisting, wrap the item in a terry towel to absorb additional water.
7. After five minutes, straighten the washed jacket as best you can on the soft hangers and hang up to dry.

Since leather is an unpredictable material, when cleaning it from dirt and stains, and especially washing It is necessary to take into account several important nuances:

• it is impossible to categorically wash two or more different things at the same time, even if they are of the same color, but if one thing consists of several parts, they must be washed together;
• so that the colored details of the jacket are not painted in unnatural shades, during washing you need to add a small amount of means to fix the color;
• Keep in mind that if there are damaged or worn spots on the jacket, after washing they will become even more noticeable;
• never use a washing machine to spin and dry your leather jacket;
• it is recommended to rinse leather goods in water with a small amount of glycerin dissolved in it;
• small defects on the skin, which appeared after washing in a washing machine, can be made not so noticeable by painting the problem areas with a suitable color spray paint;

• the smell of laundry detergent from the washed thing can be removed by rubbing it with pieces of orange peel;
• if there are white stains on the jacket from the used laundry detergent, remove them with fresh lemon juice;
• To make the thing look like new again, immediately after washing, wipe the skin surface with castor oil and glycerin, and lemon juice will help to return the lost luster to it.

The drying and ironing of leather goods, in particular, a leather jacket, also require no less attention. It should be dried either in an upright position, hanging on a soft hanger, or spreading it out on a smooth flat surface and completely straightening the sleeves. If the jacket has any decorative elements, place a soft, well-absorbing towel downward.

It is necessary to iron a leather jacket only from seamy side. The temperature of the sole of the iron should be minimal.

remember, that frequent washing over time spoil the type of products even from the highest quality and durable leather. Therefore, it is better to care for your leather jacket daily with minimal effort than to subject it to this test every month.

Here are some simple tips on how to care and wear leather items:

• Keep them away from heat sources.
• If you are exposed to rain or snow, do not rush to put your leather jacket in the closet. Remove the belt and the entire contents of the pockets from it, as wet skin is easily deformed. After that, put the clothes on the hanger and hang loose to dry.
• Do not wait until dirt or liquid that is difficult to remove is absorbed into the surface of the skin; clean the thing of impurities as soon as you notice them.
• Protect the skin from dirt and give it extra shine will help ordinary colorless cream for the treatment of shoes. It improves the appearance of a leather jacket, softening the material and visually smoothing ugly creases.
• Going to hang a leather jacket in the closet until next season, do not be too lazy to carry out cleaning "for prevention."
• To store leather outerwear, use special "breathable" covers.

Here are basic guidelines for cleaning your leather jacket at home.

For more tips and tricks on cleaning your leather jacket, see the next video.