How and with what means can you clean a felt hat at home?

Like all items of clothing, as a result of regular wear or, conversely, long-term storage in the closet, hats often lose their attractive appearance. Alas, felt is a rather easily soiled material, so information on how to clean a felt hat will be useful to many.

Simple ways to clean a hat

Before removing any dirt from the hat, it must be cleaned of dust. This can be done with a clothes brush or a vacuum cleaner with a soft-bristle attachment.

• To clean a hat from street dust and traces of sweat, mix regular salt, ammonia and table vinegar in a ratio of approximately 1:2:2. The resulting mixture is thoroughly stirred and the contaminated areas of the hat are wiped with it.
• If some places on a felt hat have become worn from regular wear and become very shiny, you can correct the situation by rubbing them a little with fine-grained sandpaper. Table salt and a clothes brush can be used instead.
• Another simple recipe is to dilute ammonia in water in equal proportions and soak a coarse cloth in the mixture. You should wipe the stained areas with it, being careful not to wet the felt itself too much, because it can become deformed.

Removing raindrops

If a product gets wet due to bad weather or during cleaning, so that it dries evenly and does not lose its shape, it is recommended to stuff it tightly with newspapers and dry it in a warm, dry place, but not too close to heating appliances.

To remove traces of raindrops, you need to hold the hat over a container of boiling water for a while, and then smooth the pile with a soft brush. Instead of a pan, you can use a household steamer, but do not hold its nozzle too close to the hat. An even easier way is to clean the hat with a medium-hard brush dipped in clean, cool water. The same method will return the tarnished product to its usual shine and shine.

Simple salt will help remove traces of grease on felt.

Fighting traces of fat

To remove a fresh grease stain at home, rub it with a crust of dried rye bread. If you don’t have it on hand, you can cover the greasy drops with salt, as is done for any other fabric. If the stain has become old, has become embedded in the felt fabric and is no longer amenable to such simple measures, then you will have to use a more potent product - purified gasoline. A rag or napkin is soaked in it and gently blots the contaminated area. It is blotted, not wetted, because otherwise the pile will remain caked in this place.

A mixture of purified gasoline and potato starch is quite effective against greasy marks. The resulting slurry is applied to the stained areas, and after drying, brushed off with a brush. If there are stains left on the hat, they are removed with a rag moistened with water with the addition of citric acid or juice.

Cleaning hats of different colors

Dark felt products can be cleaned with tobacco decoction (a tablespoon of leaves per liter of water). Moisten a rag in the resulting liquid and gently wipe the stains. The only drawback of this method is the noticeable smell of tobacco from the product.To get rid of it, you will have to air the hat for several days.

Light-colored products can be cleaned with bran. To do this, they are rubbed into the fabric and then shaken out using tapping movements on the back of the hat.

It is easy to clean yellowness on light felt hats using a solution with the addition of 2 teaspoons of ammonia and 4 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide per 1 liter of water. You should soak a clothes brush in the mixture and gently brush the item, being careful not to wet it too much.

Advice

Under no circumstances should a product designed to remove stains from white felt be used on colored items. Most likely, such a stain remover will permanently damage the color of the hat in the stained area.

If folk remedies are not suitable for some reason, you can use a stain remover, strictly following the instructions for its use, or go to a dry cleaner.

Proper storage is the key to a clean hat.

To prevent the hat from having to be cleaned too often, it is recommended to store it in a place protected from dust and dampness. It’s good if there are no sources of strong odors nearby, because felt absorbs them well. The ideal storage place is a thick cardboard box. If the hat is stored there for a long time, then it should be stuffed inside with soft paper and wrapped in fabric. You should not hang your hat on a hook for a long time so that it does not lose its shape.

Advice

If some kind of dirt has become so ingrained in a woman’s hat that it cannot be cleaned using any of the above methods, then this place can always be decorated with something - a flower, a bow or any other decorative element.

In general, unexpected dirt on your favorite hat is not at all a reason to hide it on the far shelf in the closet and run to the store for a new one.At home, restoring the cleanliness and well-groomed appearance of a felt hat is not at all difficult.