Scarves Cleaning and Caring for Hermès Scarves

[bunnycat]

FWIW I've been steaming my scarves (of all fabrics) but it doesn't do the bestest job of de-wrinkling so I recently got one of those ironing muslin things. I put it on top of the scarf so the iron doesn't really touch the silk. So far so good...

There are some i feel I should do this with. Would love to know what these look like. Have you got a spare link on them?

Wow, you guys are so much more cautious than I am. I just go in with an iron! Silk is generally very heat tolerant.

Yeah- I tend to charge on in with the iron. I don't use steam settings on them, just dry. If I need water I use a mister on it but with silk, I often iron when they are mostly dry but just damp.

I think we already have a well documented use of my salad spinner (TM) for scarves. I can't remember now if I picked that up from hand dyeing people, spinners, or what. Bu once the thought of using a salad spinner to spin out the water was in my head pretty much everything that I hand wash gets treated to it. It really helps with hand spun yarn to spin it out, since I often am spinning wool, and I don't want it to felt so don't wring or squeeze it. (Sounds so familiar...why not use it on scarves too???)

 

[yuzulife]

I think we already have a well documented use of my salad spinner (TM) for scarves. I can't remember now if I picked that up from hand dyeing people, spinners, or what. Bu once the thought of using a salad spinner to spin out the water was in my head pretty much everything that I hand wash gets treated to it. It really helps with hand spun yarn to spin it out, since I often am spinning wool, and I don't want it to felt so don't wring or squeeze it. (Sounds so familiar...why not use it on scarves too???)

I am both chuckling at the imagery and marveling at people's ingenuity! Thank you! Now I realize why I have 2 salad spinners and couldn't give up one. (Rewriting history for myself here. I just really liked both since one was glass and the other metal lol.)

 

[bunnycat]

I don’t dry clean my scarves. No one here I’d trust. Not sure there’s anyone anywhere I’d actually trust.

My Échec csgm is a dirt magnet. I’ve washed it in the machine on delicate with The Laundress countless times and it’s done beautifully.

I spot clean my silks as needed. I wouldn’t be afraid to wash them. I always set them out for a day after wearing before they go back in their box.

I wanted to share two tricks I’ve learned from silk veterans:

For an oil or sauce splatter on silk, mound the stain with baby powder and let it sit overnight. Dust off the powder. It’s magic. Thanks @pocketbookpup

For stale perfume, hang the thing in the bathroom to steam for several days. It really works. Nice on wrinkles too. Thanks @Living.la.vida.fifi

I have done the baby powder thing! It does help.

It does not help when you buy a preloved scarf thinking that the stain you see if oil or food based and then find out it was glue....... Even that I eventually mostly got out but it was a lot of work and not something I'd recommend trying unless you are desperate, confident (stupidly so...) and resigned that you could ruin it. I think rubbing alcohol, ice and maybe even a small bottle of home dry cleaning fluid became involved at some point.


I do have one perfumed (men's cologne) scarf that has resisted any and all attempts at de-fuming. It's cotton. That poor scarf must have had an entire bottle dropped on it.

In other recent H silk cleaning escapades, Mr Bcat wore his Etendards et Banniers tie for a concert he was playing the other week. He put his laundry in the machine right after.... 😢

Yes- you can imagine what happened. I opened the washer door to move things to the dryer and a shriveled up little silk tie fell out. I stopped, picked it up, dropped everything else and grabbed the iron and a big bottle of starch. I figured nothing I could do would be any worse than what had already happened. I managed to get it back in shape about 90% of the way. The bias isn't quite right anymore but all the layers didn't want to line up quite the same after. I think it is still useable and he knows it's his own fault for not checking thoroughly before putting shirts in.

 

[yuzulife]

I have done the baby powder thing! It does help.

It does not help when you buy a preloved scarf thinking that the stain you see if oil or food based and then find out it was glue....... Even that I eventually mostly got out but it was a lot of work and not something I'd recommend trying unless you are desperate, confident (stupidly so...) and resigned that you could ruin it. I think rubbing alcohol, ice and maybe even a small bottle of home dry cleaning fluid became involved at some point.


I do have one perfumed (men's cologne) scarf that has resisted any and all attempts at de-fuming. It's cotton. That poor scarf must have had an entire bottle dropped on it.

Does the baby powder work on cashmere-silk too?

Eek, you are very brave!

That's a very persistent cologne. Even freezing the scarf didn't help?

 

[bunnycat]

Does the baby powder work on cashmere-silk too?

Eek, you are very brave!

That's a very persistent cologne. Even freezing the scarf didn't help?

Not a thing has helped. I think I did the freezer thing too... It is a lot less now. Honestly, I eventually subjected it to sitting in a room next to my favorite incense burning and even that didn't stop it entirely.

The really great thing about cashmere silk is you aren't bound by watermarks like you would be on regular silk. That usually why I have to immerse an entire silk scarf if I do need to clean. Spot cleaning you can sometimes manage to do but the wet spot will make a ring once dry, sometimes you can mitigate watermarks by spot cleaning and then immediately ironing the area (and misting lightly all around it). But sometimes you just end up with needing an evenly wet fabric so it can all dry at the same rate. The drying differential causes the marks. (FWIW- that is how you get watermarks out of leather too, you evenly mist all over or wipe with a damp cloth so it can all re-dry at the same rate).

Theoretically you should be just fine on cashmere using the powder method. It can't hurt to try. But like I mentioned, cashmere isn't bound by the watermark problem, so you can spot clean with ease if powder doesn't work, then just quickly iron the spot and all should be well. Because of the nature of cashmere, try to avoid too much abrasion of rubbing the cloth together, just gently clean, so you can minimize pilling.

Personal thoughts: I know a lot of people complain about pilling on (mostly recent) cashmeres. And now, having taken up some intermittent spinning a few years ago, I wonder if a lot of the issue people have had recently is from lower twist spun yarns? Maybe they had a change in yarn suppliers or made a choice to go for a different "hand" in the finished fabric? A yarn with less twist in it is soft, but more prone to pilling and abrasion. A higher twist yarn maybe not as soft, but less prone to pills....hmmm....

 

[AnnaE]

For oily stains: I never have baby powder, so I would sprinkle the scarf with salt.

Avert your eyes if you have a delicate disposition, but I have found that the best treatment for oil-based stains is dishwasher detergent. A small drop and a quick dab. I have even hand soap in a restaurant bathroom in a pinch. I travel a lot for work (and did even more so before Covid), so various food-, wine-, and coffee-stains were fact of life.

I can’t speak to cashmeres as this peasant is deathly allergic…

 

[textilegirl]

There are some i feel I should do this with. Would love to know what these look like. Have you got a spare link on them?


Yeah- I tend to charge on in with the iron. I don't use steam settings on them, just dry. If I need water I use a mister on it but with silk, I often iron when they are mostly dry but just damp.

I think we already have a well documented use of my salad spinner (TM) for scarves. I can't remember now if I picked that up from hand dyeing people, spinners, or what. Bu once the thought of using a salad spinner to spin out the water was in my head pretty much everything that I hand wash gets treated to it. It really helps with hand spun yarn to spin it out, since I often am spinning wool, and I don't want it to felt so don't wring or squeeze it. (Sounds so familiar...why not use it on scarves too???)

That’s brilliant!!! Exactly, no actual fabric manipulation, just physics

 

[textilegirl]

I have done the baby powder thing! It does help.

It does not help when you buy a preloved scarf thinking that the stain you see if oil or food based and then find out it was glue....... Even that I eventually mostly got out but it was a lot of work and not something I'd recommend trying unless you are desperate, confident (stupidly so...) and resigned that you could ruin it. I think rubbing alcohol, ice and maybe even a small bottle of home dry cleaning fluid became involved at some point.


I do have one perfumed (men's cologne) scarf that has resisted any and all attempts at de-fuming. It's cotton. That poor scarf must have had an entire bottle dropped on it.

In other recent H silk cleaning escapades, Mr Bcat wore his Etendards et Banniers tie for a concert he was playing the other week. He put his laundry in the machine right after.... 😢

Yes- you can imagine what happened. I opened the washer door to move things to the dryer and a shriveled up little silk tie fell out. I stopped, picked it up, dropped everything else and grabbed the iron and a big bottle of starch. I figured nothing I could do would be any worse than what had already happened. I managed to get it back in shape about 90% of the way. The bias isn't quite right anymore but all the layers didn't want to line up quite the same after. I think it is still useable and he knows it's his own fault for not checking thoroughly before putting shirts in.

DH threw his cashmere muffler in the laundry once (the Aller Retour, double-faced bicolor) And I was shocked to see it was basically fine. I could have manipulated/steamed it to really bring it back but it’s not like it shrunk or felted into an unusable ball; it’s perfectly fine for casual use.

 

[CoastalCouture]

FWIW I've been steaming my scarves (of all fabrics) but it doesn't do the bestest job of de-wrinkling so I recently got one of those ironing muslin things. I put it on top of the scarf so the iron doesn't really touch the silk. So far so good...

If I have a scarf that is wrinkled from knotting or wearing, I will give it a light steam press using a steam iron with a piece of silk organza as a press cloth. I hover the iron above the scarf and don't actually touch it to the silk. The organza is there is protect the scarf from anything (such as scale or iron stuff) that might come out of the iron along with the steam. I then leave the scarf to dry in place on the ironing board. The hems stay nice and plump with this method.

Silk organza is relatively inexpensive for silk. One yard can be cut up into whatever size you like and will last a long time. I like silk organza for a press cloth because you can more or less see through it, a big plus when you are pressing or ironing.

 

[AnnaE]

My working theory is that many materials are more resilient than we think.

I have two identical L'Ivresse De L'Infini. A cleaner once washed one in a washing machine (it was bundled up with a blouse I was wearing). I would be hard pressed to guess which one has been washed. They look equally bright.

My husband recently washed my leather Hermes gloves. Shockingly, they are fine and back to their normal soft self after I put saddle oil on them.

 

[Snausages]

For @bunnycat and anyone who’s interested…. This is the press cloth I bought

Press Cloth Link

It was $8 for two pieces of fabric. So far I’m pleased!

Another product I swear by is Janie’s Dry Cleaning Stick

Janie’s Link

I think the concept is similar to the baking soda/ baby powder method. I think it’s a chalk like substance that absorbs the oils in a stain. Many times it completely eradicates the mark. Other times I have to repeat the process a few times. If that doesn’t work then it’s off to the cold water hand wash.

 

[bunnycat]

DH threw his cashmere muffler in the laundry once (the Aller Retour, double-faced bicolor) And I was shocked to see it was basically fine. I could have manipulated/steamed it to really bring it back but it’s not like it shrunk or felted into an unusable ball; it’s perfectly fine for casual use.

I’d have Right away. I may wash scarves but I do treat them all just like I do hand woven items. Hand woven=hand wash. I’m about to do some hand woven washcloths tho and need to get over it. Those need to go through the laundry.

 

[bunnycat]

For @bunnycat and anyone who’s interested…. This is the press cloth I bought

Press Cloth Link

It was $8 for two pieces of fabric. So far I’m pleased!

Another product I swear by is Janie’s Dry Cleaning Stick

Janie’s Link

I think the concept is similar to the baking soda/ baby powder method. I think it’s a chalk like substance that absorbs the oils in a stain. Many times it completely eradicates the mark. Other times I have to repeat the process a few times. If that doesn’t work then it’s off to the cold water hand wash.

I am going to check these out for sure especially any leads on good stain sticks.

 

[bunnycat]

My working theory is that many materials are more resilient than we think.

I have two identical L'Ivresse De L'Infini. A cleaner once washed one in a washing machine (it was bundled up with a blouse I was wearing). I would be hard pressed to guess which one has been washed. They look equally bright.

My husband recently washed my leather Hermes gloves. Shockingly, they are fine and back to their normal soft self after I put saddle oil on them.

Im sure the silence when those came out of the washer was as complete as when I found the poor silk tie. I’m glad some saddle oil fixed them right up!

 

[AnnaE]

Im sure the silence when those came out of the washer was as complete as when I found the poor silk tie. I’m glad some saddle oil fixed them right up!

Oh gosh — yes. They are old, but finding Hermes leather gloves with a silk lining and in my size (enormous Eastern European peasant hands here) is really hard. Of course, that load was washed on high and had a generous amount of OcyClean in it.

Thankfully, I do keep a supply of Hermes saddle oil on hand (since, you know, saddles!), and I put it on generously. I actually think it may have been fine without it, but I wasn’t about to risk it.

My husband did also manage to wash an Hermes silk tie once. It was fine after some ironing.