Table of Contents:
Satin
has a smooth feel that makes it appealing for many items from bedsheets to garments. It ranges in durability as well as cleaning options. Always check the care instructions found on the inside tag to determine the right cleaning process for your item.
Cleaning Satin
- Satin items should be washed by hand or on the delicate cycle of your washer
- Use cold water along with a gentle detergent, like Woolite.
- When hand-washing, let the item soak in sudsy water for about 3 to 5 minutes. Gently squeeze the suds through the clothing. Rinse thoroughly with cool or cold water.
- DO NOT wring or twist your satin clothing as it will cause it to loose its shape.
- Avoid placing satin items in a dryer. Instead, lay the item flat on a clean, dry towel, and roll the towel, jelly-roll style, and apply pressure to squeeze out excess water. Unroll, remove item and lay flat on another clean, dry towel to finish air drying, away from sun or excess heat.
- Satin items should be ironed on a medium/light setting, with no steam. Iron the items inside-out with quick strokes, never allowing the iron to linger too long on any one spot.
Additional Tips and Advice
- NEVER wash satin items in hot water. Hot water washing may shrink your satin items as much as 10% to 20% in size.
- Satin bedding should be stored in an air-tight container placed in a cool dark place.
- Extremely delicate satin should only be dry-cleaned to avoid damage.
Besides being great for cleaning panties that get the odd stain, Napisan is fantastic for cleaning grease off kitchen fan grills and the similar. Just find a bowl big enough, a scoop of Napisan and very hot water, immerse the plastic and for a few seconds, the item will look as good as new with none of that scrubbing associated with sugar soap, etc.
Jasmine H.
I got mid-brown hair color on a satin top. Can you recommend anything to get the stain off?
P.S. The satin is pink.
Please help and recommend — how to clean a three piece satin-covered lounge suit.
How do you clean a satin hanger?
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I have a Skinner’s Satin wedding dress from 1947. I would like to clean it. The cleaners said they could not promise me. So I brought it home. It’s in great shape, with no stains. Any suggestions?
Mary,
There is never any guarantee unfortunately. However, here are some suggestions.
1) Any cleaner or cleaning process that you are considering using can be tested on a small hidden area first to look for any adverse reaction. Wait until the fabric has fully dried to assess the results of the test.
2) Since it’s not stained at all, you could just do a powder cleaning, which means sprinkling baking soda over it and letting it sit for a couple hours. The baking soda will absorb any dirt or grime on the surface of the fabric, as well as deodorize it. It can then simply be shaken off. This process can be repeated as many times as needed.
Good luck!
Melanie,
Can the baking soda be used only on the underarm area of a sleeveless satin dress? ( I have a number of gowns used for entertaining in aged care facilities, so second hand and most likely from the 1990’s.)
Thanks.
Carolyn,
Baking soda can be used on any part of the dress as long as the fabric is dry. The powder will soak up dirt and oils that are on the surface of the fabric, as well as deodorize if needed (it’s a natural deodorizer). Be generous with the amount of baking soda used – a thick layer of it will be able to soak up more dirt/oils than a very thin/sparse layer. Only a thin/sparse amount is needed for deodorizing though. Good luck!
Melanie, thank you so much for your helpful response.
It’s summer here so baking soda will be in demand. 🙂 Carolyn
We have a new adopted 14-year-old daughter whom we have had now for 3 months. She is a bedwetter and from day one we put her in cloth diapers and rubberpants (plasticpants) at night. We recently had her baptized and christened at Sunday mass and did her in the traditional white, poofy top of the knees, sleeveless baptism/christening dress with the matching bonnet, lace anklets and white ‘mary jane’ shoes. We put her bedwetting cloth diapers and rubberpants on her and her Aunt Martha gave us a pair of white, satin, ruffled panties to wear over the diapers and rubberpants. At her party, she sat on a chair that had pizza sauce spilled on it,and it stained the back of the ruffled panties! She will be making her First Communion in May and is going to wear a pair of her rubberpants with the ruffled panties over them under her communion dress. Can anyone tell us how to get the pizza sauce out of the ruffled satin panties?
Brenda D.,
One thing that works well for tomato stains on white items is sunlight. Luckily it is a very gentle method that can be used on satin too. Simply lay the item in the sun for several hours and the sun will naturally bleach the stain away. This same thing has happened to several commenters on the article How to Remove Tomato Stains, though for them the stains were actually on the rubber pants, not the satin. However, one person (Linda) wrote back in to say the sunlight worked. If there is still any stain remaining after that, try using the method in the guide How to Remove Stains from Satin. Good luck!
To Melanie-
Our 15-year-old daughter finally made her First Holy Communion this past May 19th. The dress code calls for the girls to wear a cloth diaper, rubberpants and tights with their communion dresses. She also sat on a chair at her party and got a stain on the back of her white tights that soaked through and got her rubberpants as well. The dry cleaners got the stain out of the tights, but wouldn’t touch the rubberpants, so I followed the previous mentioned steps and got the stain out of the rubberpants.
Hi Karen,
So glad this method worked for you! Thanks for letting me know!
When our daughter was 14, she was the flowergirl in her Aunt Sarah’s wedding and wore a cute sleeveless, poofy, midthigh-length flowergirl dress with a veil, lace anklets and white shoes. Aunt Sarah and I had the daughter wear the standard ruffled rubberpants under her dress. She sat on a chair that had wedding cake spilled on it and got a stain on the back of the rubberpants and the ruffles also. I also followed the steps above and got the stain out!
What about getting an oil stain out of satin? Recommendations for oil are to clean with stain remover then use hot water to rinse from a high point. But this site is recommending not to use hot water due to shrinkage. What about just for a single stain point on the bottom of a dress?
Susan,
There is a much easier way to remove oil stains that doesn’t require any water: use the method in the guide How to Remove Oil Stains from Silk. Good luck!