How to clean a felt hat at home

There are wardrobe items that cannot be washed in the usual way. But they tend to get dirty too. What to do? For example, how to clean a felt hat?

Ordinary dust

On most felt hats, a whitish coating from a long sock appears. This street dust settles between the fibers. To clean such a hat can be very simple. You will need:

• pan
• water
• medium hard brush or coarse cloth
• two hands

Pour water into the pan, set on fire. As it boils, we take the hat in one hand. Hold it above the steam, with the second hand we clean the dust with a brush in the direction of the pile. At the end of the procedure, we straighten and raise the pile with a stiff brush. Leave to dry.

Water stains

Often after walking in the rain and drying on felt, marks remain. It's difficult to call them spots. However, the headgear has an unpresentable appearance. This is very easy to fix. You don’t even need special tools.

We take:

• hard brush
• clean cool water

The procedure is simple. Moisten the brush slightly with water, then with gentle movements we raise the pile on the felt. The pseudo-spots will disappear right before our eyes.

Just don't overdo it. Do not wet your hat through, otherwise it will become deformed. After all the steps, you only need to dry the hat in a warm, dry room.

If you have a steamer or the iron has this function, then try raising the pile with hot steam. After processing, comb the hat with a medium hard brush and dry it. Preferably on the block or in a suitable form.

Tip. Do not place the felt hat on the radiator or heater for drying. Glossy marks may appear.

Lime and chalk stains

Very insidious marks are obtained if you accidentally touch a whitewashed wall. Routine cleaning will result in whitish stains. And with further contact with the brush and water, they creep even more. What to do? Take table vinegar 9% and clean water, mix in a ratio of 1 to 1. And with the already obtained liquid, treat stains from whitewashing. In this case, the movement should be strictly from the edges to the center. Instead of vinegar, you can take lemon juice.

After the lime disappears, wipe the cleaned area with a soft cloth with clean water.

Greasy spots

It may not necessarily be a stain from the products. In the places where the hat comes in contact with the skin, similar marks can also occur. Some sources recommend rubbing the flaw with dry bread crust or sprinkle with salt. In our opinion, this is a very dubious method. After all, there are more effective and high-quality methods:

1. Refined gasoline. A coarse rag (cloth) is moistened in a liquid. Then, without pressing, wipe the stain until it disappears completely.
2. Ammonia. It is diluted with ordinary water in a ratio of 1 to 1. The stain is removed with the resulting mixture. Additional wiping with clean water is not required.
3. Denatured alcohol and ammonia. They are mixed in equal proportions, then the problem area is treated. According to reviews, this method copes even with the oldest greasy spots and greasy places.

There are recommendations to use stain remover. The method is very good, but there is one caveat. The product should be intended for colored fabrics. Otherwise, there is a great risk of getting a bright mark instead of a greasy spot.

Light felt hats are cleaned of fat in a slightly different way. You will need potato starch and refined gasoline. The raw materials are mixed until the slurry is thick, then rubbed into the mark with a brush.After drying, the mixture is not washed off, but shaken off, tapping on the inside of the headgear. It remains only to comb the pile.

Tip. Instead of starch and gasoline, you can use dry bran or semolina. They are rubbed into a greasy stain until it disappears completely. After the remnants of the cleaning agent shake off.

Useful Tips

If a felt hat in some places has faded from prolonged wearing, then restoring the color can be very simple. You need to buy spray paint for suede or nubuck in the right shade. Then follow the instructions. Try it, the result will pleasantly surprise you.

There are recommendations to clean felt hats of brown shades with a decoction of tobacco leaves. Why such difficulties? Where to get these same leaves? How to get rid of tobacco stink later?

Do not bother yourself with nonsense, and use more traditional methods.

The most common contaminants are on felt hats on the inside. These are places sweat-stained. You can clean them using this mixture:

• table 9% vinegar, 10 parts
• ammonia, 10 parts
• salt, 3 parts

All components are thoroughly mixed until the grains are completely dissolved. Then they take a light cloth, moisten it in a liquid and wipe off the pollution. It is necessary to clean until the fabric ceases to get dirty. Then, as usual, combing and drying.

There are tips to use fine sandpaper to clean a felt hat. The recipe is of very dubious quality. The fact is that only the top layer of the pile will be cleaned. The spot itself will remain in the thickness of felt. And where is the guarantee that soon it will not appear again?

What if all efforts to clean the felt hat went in vain? An insidious stain can be seen in the most visible place and no tool takes it! Here you have to turn on the fantasy. After all, the mark can always be closed with some decorative element. On a man’s headdress - an elegant ribbon, a strict buckle. On the female - a flower, jewelry. At the nursery - a fun patch or even a small soft toy.

At the same time, it is not necessary to sew the element tightly. You can use pieces of Velcro, and change the image every day. But such a hat will be in a single copy and only you.

How to clean a felt hat at home? Especially if you do not trust dry cleaners. It turns out that it’s not so difficult. Some knowledge, a little zeal, caution - and wow! Your hat is as good as new.

Video: how to clean a felt hat