How to clean a leather jacket and restore its shine at home?

Leather jackets have many advantages: they look stylish, provide excellent protection from wind and cold, and with proper care they retain their appearance for a long time. Many people are concerned about how to clean a leather jacket at home. After all, not everyone can afford dry cleaning services, but you want to get rid of stains as quickly as possible.

What will help?

Before deciding how to clean a leather jacket more effectively, you need to assess the extent and nature of the dirt.

• Soap, water and ammonia will help remove light stains: dust, stains from drops, stains.
• Alcohol will clean greasy areas, as well as ink and felt-tip pen stains.
• Gasoline will help remove grease stain from thick skin.
• Chalk, starch or talc will help get rid of oily stains on thin skin.
• Vinegar will remove stains from water and salt.
• Castor oil or glycerin will help soften the material after cleaning.
• Lemon juice will help restore shine to your jacket and get rid of unpleasant odor.
• Orange peel will help restore natural shine and eliminate scuffs.

Regular care

If there are no visible stains, this does not mean that cleaning the jacket is not necessary. Regular care of your leather jacket is essential. This will help maintain the fresh look and color of not only the leather, but also the leatherette for a long time. For cleaning, a solution of soapy water and a small amount of ammonia (about 10 drops of alcohol per glass of water) is suitable.

If you see that the jacket needs to be washed, you just need to treat it with a sponge or flannel cloth soaked in the solution. Then rinse the soap solution with clean water and wipe the skin dry. After this, it is recommended to lubricate the jacket with a special leather cream. If you don't have it on hand, glycerin or regular castor oil will do, helping to soften the material.

Advice

How to update a white leather jacket? Regular milk will cleanse fair skin. It leaves no marks or streaks on the product and also helps soften the skin. Another good bleach is lemon juice.

How to eliminate greasiness?

In addition to dust and splashes, there are more persistent stains that are a little more difficult to get rid of. Usually the collar “suffers”; it regularly comes into contact with the neck. To make it less likely to get dirty, it is recommended to wear a scarf and wipe it with soap and water from time to time. But how to clean a jacket if stubborn stains have already appeared? Straighten the collar and wipe it thoroughly with a cotton pad soaked in rubbing alcohol. After this, rub it with lemon juice and then glycerin to soften the skin. You can also clean your sleeves and other greasy areas in the same way.

Advice

If the collar is slightly dirty, you can restore its appearance using cosmetic makeup remover milk. Just soak a cotton pad in milk and wipe the collar.

Removing difficult stains

A greasy stain can be removed using pure gasoline or turpentine, which is sold in hardware stores. Dip a soft cloth or sponge into gasoline and wipe the stained area. To quickly eliminate the smell, hang the jacket outdoors for a while, then treat it with lemon juice.This product is also effective for removing mold and paint stains.

Advice

In order not to spoil the color of the jacket, use solvent sparingly. Before use, it is better to test its effect on a small and inconspicuous area.

Gasoline is only suitable for thick and rough skin. It can be dangerous to expose softer and more delicate items, as well as leatherette jackets, to gasoline. How to update a leather jacket in this case? Chalk, starch or talc will help you. Dissolve the product in water to obtain a thick white paste. Apply the mixture to the stain and leave for several hours or overnight. Then wipe off the chalk with a sponge or sponge, if necessary, wipe the jacket with soapy water and apply glycerin.

Students and office workers are familiar with the problem of various ink marks and dots remaining on their jackets. It is especially easy for ink to ruin light skin. To remove marks from a ballpoint pen or felt-tip pen, simply soak a cotton pad in rubbing alcohol and wipe all the marks with it.

Washing a leather jacket

Many people are concerned about the question: how to wash a leather jacket correctly and is it possible to do it at all? It is strictly not recommended to wash leather goods in an automatic washing machine. This can lead to the item simply losing its pleasant appearance and color. Often, after such exposure, good things can no longer be rehabilitated. Leatherette jackets can be washed in a washing machine only if allowed by the manufacturer (usually this information is indicated on the label).

But the lining, which is located closer to the body, needs to be washed from time to time.It is quite difficult to clean it at home without using a washing machine: the outer leather surface should not be wetted too much, but the fabric lining, on the contrary, should be thoroughly wetted. Before washing your leather jacket, turn it inside out and lift up the lining to keep moisture out of the leather areas as much as possible. Wet the lining with a sponge soaked in water and rub it with warm soapy water or a solution of laundry detergent.

Then rinse the pad thoroughly. You can use a clean cloth soaked in water with a few drops of vinegar added. After this, hang the jacket in the same inside-out position to dry. It is better to dry at room temperature. If you want to iron your jacket, do it from the inside and only through the fabric.

Useful tips

1. Use special impregnation so that the material retains its color, does not fade in the sun and does not deteriorate in rain and snow. This measure will allow you to less frequently resort to cleaning leather and faux leather products.
2. Do not put the item on while it is wet, as this may cause it to stretch.
3. Do not dry a leather or leatherette jacket near heating appliances, much less on them.
4. When cleaning, do not rub the leather too hard, as this may cause it to become deformed.
5. Do not rub orange peel on white skin, otherwise the light surface may be spoiled by red spots.
6. Try to clean the stains immediately, do not let them soak into the skin. Fresh stains are much easier to remove.

Knowing how to care for a leather jacket will help you maintain its beauty for a long time. And for this it is not at all necessary to spend a lot of money on dry cleaning.