How to wash velvet - sorry, not sure where else to ask!

[MiliZee]

Hey there :-)

Okay, so I'm not at all sure this is the right place to ask this, but of all the places I post online it was my best bet because at least here I know there are lots of people with all kinds of fabric-related skills and knowledge AND it's tried and tested in terms of giving out good advice and being responsive!

So, here's my problem today: I recently bought a really nice handbag on ebay - pre-owned, but bought from the first owner - which I would like to wash once.

I wouldn't say it's dirty, really, in fact it looks perfectly clean with no marks, but it does have a slight smell; sort of closet-y (like when things put away straight after wearing), which if it gets warmed up (such as when I aired it out in the mild sunshine) it gets much stronger and sort of chemical, sharp, I dunno how to describe it but it's not nice :-/ In short, I would feel better if there was a way I could wash it as it hasn't gone away even after I've kept it out of my own closet for the few weeks I've had it. The problem is that it is made out of some sort of velvety material, so it's not an obvious thing to wash. So I just wanted to get some ideas and advice on whether I can do that, and what to pay attention to, and what kind of results I should expect, that sort of thing.

It is a medium sized bag (A4 papers will squeeze in but not a book the same size), has a kisslock frame opening, and piping around the edges to give shape and structure. There is also some type of semi-rigid interfacing on the bottom to give the bottom some shape, but it is sewn in so I have no way to find out what it is. There is no label listing exact fabric composition, but the outside is some sort of velvety material accented with a few beads and sequins, while the inside is a sort of satiny material - shiny but not in-your-face about it, more of a bright sheen. It is dark purple in color.

Anyway, anything you can let me know around washing this type of thing, I would definitely appreciate it!

Thanks!!

[MannaStudios]

MiliZee,

hello again! I love your questions - they are so diversified! LOL - & make me stop to think...... ok - for this problem I would suggest dry cleaning. That's the only real way to "wash" it. It might have that velvet feel but there are tons of knock offs out there that are basically some type of polyester related product. With real velvet - you really do need to dry clean.

If you can't afford dry cleaning, they have those kits (found in the laundry section of the store) that works in your dryer. If you can't afford that - you take a barely damp slightly soapy cloth and go over it. I do mean barely!!!!!
Rinse with a barely damp cloth (no soap). Let dry. If the odor persists you can get some cat litter, fill the bottom 1/3 of a brown paper bag or even plastic shopping bad with the cat litter and set your purse on top of the cat litter - sitting the purse on a wash cloth or something (in other words so its not sitting directly on the cat litter.) Close up the bag and leave it like that a few days.

To remove odor you could also crumple up newspaper and fill the purse with it for several days - the newspaper absorbs the odor.

Just some ideas..... take care!!!!

[Former_Member]

Washing real velvet in water can ruin the nap. If the handbag is clean and there are odors, and you want to avoid clean cat litter, you could try using cedar balls, or dried orange peels, or clove sachets. To me, most cat litters have a strong, unpleasant perfume odor. I have set many fabric items in a bin with cedar or dried orange peels or both and had all odors go away (heavy smoke, etc) BUT I did leave items in the closed environment for weeks. Clove sachets are pleasant, but they need to be well separated from fabric, as the oils could bleed through to it.
Just a few more ideas to try if you haven't solved the problem already.

[Former_Member]

I wouldn't even try to wash velvet. Rather to be on the safe side, I'd have it professionally cleaned.

[Former_Member]

Washing velvet or a velvet type material is a recipe for disaster.
Professional dry cleaning is the way to go.

[MannaStudios]

Chris,

I'm just curious about the clove (which I love) - does it remove the odor or mask it? Ditto with the orange peels?

Never heard of either of those before and it sure would beat cat litter! LOL!
thanks - - - mary

[Former_Member]

http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Velvet

If the velvet is similar to upholstery grade you may want to try some Resolve Upholstery Cleaner. Follow the directions on the bottle.

[Former_Member]

Mary, I don't know what the odor is on your handbag, but I've had fabric items with strong smoke smell, and fabric items with a strong 'bad living odor', and also items that just had a strong 'cleaned with regular detergent' odor, and all of those were gone after the orange peel and cedar storage. I couldn't smell any of it afterward. And both the cedar and orange peel scent fades quickly. The cloves we hang in our closets as sachets, and sometimes I'll toss one or two of those in with the cedar and orange peels. Clove scent lingers a long while afterward! So I am not sure about the cloves alone, but to me it would be worth trying. It is a pleasant scent.

[MiliZee]

Hey, sorry I didn't check in earlier! I was so busy it completely slipped my mind, I just remembered now I got home and saw the bag again ;-)

Dry-cleaning was my own first thought as well, but I'm VERY reluctant because I've had issues with that: I once had an item completely ruined, which is all the worse because I knew I could have done a better job just shoving it in the washer! The coat was pretty new (only had it a few months and it was a duffle, the sort of thing you can use for ten years easily, so a few months old is actually quite new), and even though my mom said she knew how to wash it in the w/m without a problem AND I'd seen her successfully wash all kinds of 'dry clean only' items over the years, I was just a punk kid and insisted on dry cleaning. The coat came back with the nap totally destroyed - it had a wonderful texture like a new fleece before, almost, and when it came back it was more pilled than than a work uniform sweater! AND it stank with a chemical scent. Since then I'm very reluctant to trust dry cleaners :-/

Mary, I wish I could try those dryer kits, but we don't have a dryer! But I'm thinking it's probably a knock off mix - I mean, it was made for the stationery brand, Paperchase, and their stuff is on the cheaper side - how likely is it really that such a large purse that is also such a complex design (frame, beaded detailing, reinforced bottom, multiple inner pockets) would actually use honest-to-goodness real velvet and still manage to cost little enough to sell at PAperchase price points? It's not even as though these guys can count on massive production quantities to lower costs, is it? Is there a way I could test the fabric to figure out what it is? I remember something called a fabric burn test, maybe?

I'm glad my questions are fun! I'm rather happy to hear this because I do feel like I'm not putting much back into the community, because it's rare that I have an answer to a question posted here - so I'm mostly taking, not giving back. So if at least the questions themselves are interesting, then that's something!

Chris, yeah, I think I'll skip the litter. It seems really easy the way Mary describes it, but I don't want to risk it with its own odor - even when it's not perfumey, it's a nasty dusty sort of odor. OTOH, storing the item for weeks in a closed container is absolutely no problem - it's velvet, and dark purple, and with brocade-y designs, so it's just about as wintery as you can get. There's NO way I'd be using this for at least the next three and a half months, probably more :-) At this point if it had been clean, it would have gone in the top closet with the moth protection anyway.

Overall, I think I'll wait and see if anyone knows of a way to identify the fabric, and if it's a plastic knock off it's probably worth just washing it. Otherwise, I'll go for Chris' orange peel and cedar combo.

[Former_Member]

I used to use straight bolts of black velvet for all my craft show tablecloths on top of other cotton fabrics as a topper. Sometimes I'd be caught in the pouring rain I remember them being drenched at times with the wind and all kinds of disasters. I'd just let them air dry and somehow they always looked great,
I used the same velvet for almost 15 years. I'm not recommending that you try to wash velvet but it was amazing to me how beautiful my tablecloths looked year after year. I bought the best velvet I could find. I still have them even though I no longer do shows. Velvet is Great!