Silk sarees are an expensive investment and require a lot of love and care. There is nothing worse than a food stain or splashing a drink on an expensive silk saree.  However, the hard to maintain silks are not really very difficult as they seem to be. With a little care they can be easily maintained looking as good as new. Today let’s talk about some tips and tricks to wash your silk clothes at home – including silk sarees and still retain its lustre.
Points to remember before washing silk clothes at home
- Always use warm water on your silks; which means no hot water, hot irons or drying machines.
- If the care label suggests that you dry clean only then it isn’t worth the risk to wash the garment at home.
- Use a gentle detergent to wash your silk sarees. Avoid harsh soaps and bleach which may damage your sarees.
- Check the color fastness by washing a small patch on your saree. By doing this you will know if the color runs and if it does, dry cleaning will be the only best option.
Once you are sure of the above rules, you can go ahead with washing your silk garments.
How to hand wash silk clothes at home
- Fill a tub with lukewarm water, and add a few drops of gentle detergent suitable for silk. You could even use a mild shampoo or a body wash. Using these will definitely help you to retain the lustre of the silk.
- Soak your garments for about 5 minutes.
- Drain the water from the tub and add plain cold water along with quarter a cup of vinegar. This will help in removing soap from the garments. However, this step is optional.
- Then you can do a third rinse with plain cold water.
- After you’re done, lay the garment on a dry towel and roll it trying to squeeze the water.
- Dry it flat on another dry towel or hang it to try.
How to remove stains from silk fabrics
- Old or dried stains are very hard to remove, so the sooner you try to remove them, the better.
- Treat the stain with a mixture of lime juice and vinegar.
- There are various stain removal liquids available in the market. Keep one handy in case of emergency.
- Carefully wash the silk garment using the above method and if it does not work (since it’s a gentle wash) then dry clean would be the best option.
Delicate machine wash is also preferable, however on the long run we would not suggest you to wash silk clothes in the machine. And even if you go with delicate machine wash with the lowest temperature, make sure you never put the garment in the dryer.
The above methods are most effective and the safest way to wash your delicate silk clothes and various other delicate fabrics. Let us know if you try any of the above and how did it work for you. It definitely does for us!
