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

Leather jackets have many advantages: they look stylish, perfectly protect against wind and cold, and with proper care they retain their appearance for a long time. Many are worried about how to clean a leather jacket at home. After all, dry cleaning services are not affordable for everyone, but you want to get rid of stains as quickly as possible.

What will help?

Before deciding how to clean a leather jacket more efficiently, you need to evaluate the extent and nature of the contamination.

• Soap, water and ammonia will help remove light impurities: dust, stains from drops, stains.
• Alcohol will clean greasy spots, as well as stains from ink and felt-tip pens.
• Gasoline will help remove greasy stain with thick skin.
• Chalk, starch or talcum powder 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 the jacket shine and get rid of the unpleasant odor.
• Orange peel will help restore natural shine and eliminate scuffs.

Regular care

If there are no visible spots, this does not mean that there is no need to clean the jacket. Regular care of a leather jacket is a must. This will help to maintain a fresh look and color not only of the skin, but also of leather substitute for a long time. A solution of soapy water and a small amount of ammonia (about 10 drops of alcohol per glass of water) is suitable for cleaning.

If you see that the jacket needs to be washed, you just need to treat it with a sponge or a flannel cloth soaked in a solution. Then wash off the soap solution with clean water and wipe the skin dry. After this, it is recommended to lubricate the jacket with a special cream for the skin. If it’s not at hand, glycerin or regular castor oil, which helps soften the material, is suitable.

Tip

How to update a white leather jacket? Light skin will be cleansed with regular milk. It does not leave marks and stains on the product, and also helps soften the skin. Another good bleach is lemon juice.

How to eliminate greasy?

In addition to dust and spray, there are more persistent contaminants, which 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 also wipe it with soapy water from time to time. But how to clean a jacket if stubborn stains have already appeared? Straighten the collar and thoroughly wipe it with a cotton pad dipped in medical alcohol. Then rub it with lemon juice and then with glycerin to soften the skin. In the same way, sleeves and other greasy spots can be cleaned.

Tip

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

Remove complex stains

Grease stains can be removed with clean gasoline or turpentine, which is sold in hardware stores. Dip a soft cloth or sponge in gasoline and wipe the spot. To quickly eliminate the smell, hang the jacket outdoors for a while, then treat it with lemon juice. The same tool is effective for eliminating mold and stains from paint.

Tip

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

Gasoline is only suitable for thick and rough skin.Softer and more delicate products, as well as leatherette jackets, exposing gas to gas can be dangerous. How to update a leather jacket in this case? Chalk, starch or talcum powder will help you. Dissolve the product in water to get a thick white slurry. Apply the mixture on a stain and leave for several hours or overnight. Then erase the chalk with a sponge or sponge, if necessary, wipe the jacket with soap and water and apply glycerin.

Students and office workers are familiar with the problem when various ink strokes and dots remain on the jacket. It is especially easy to spoil fair skin with ink. To remove traces of a ballpoint pen or felt-tip pen, simply dampen a cotton pad with medical alcohol and wipe it with any stains.

Washing leather jacket

Many people care about the question: how to wash a leather jacket correctly and can it even be done? It is strongly not recommended to wash leather goods in a washing machine. This can lead to the fact that the thing simply loses its nice appearance and color. Often after such exposure, good things can no longer be rehabilitated. Jackets made of leatherette can be washed in a washing machine only if it is authorized by the manufacturer (usually this information is indicated on the label).

But the lining, which is closer to the body, needs to be washed from time to time. At home, without using a washing machine, it is quite difficult to clean it: the external leather surface cannot be wetted much, and the fabric lining, on the contrary, should be wetted properly. Before washing the leather jacket, turn it inside out and lift the lining to protect the leather patches from moisture as much as possible. Moisten the lining with a sponge moistened in water and rub it with warm soapy water or a solution of washing powder.

Then rinse the lining thoroughly. You can use a clean cloth dipped in water with a few drops of vinegar. After that, hang the jacket in the same inverted state for drying. Dry better at room temperature. If you want to stroke the 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 the rain and snow. This measure will allow less frequent resort to cleaning products made of leather and leatherette.
2. Do not put on a thing while it is wet, so you can stretch it.
3. Do not dry a jacket made of leather or faux leather near heating appliances, and even less so on them.
4. During cleaning, do not rub the skin too much, this can cause it to deform.
5. Do not rub the white skin with the orange peel, otherwise the light surface may be ruined by red spots.
6. Try to immediately clean the spots, do not let them soak into the skin. Fresh spots are much easier to remove.

Knowing how to care for a leather jacket, you can permanently preserve its beauty. And for this it is not necessary to spend a lot of money on dry cleaning.