When investing in quality home furnishings, you want to protect that investment by maintaining them properly. Here is a short guide to help you easily maintain your curtains and extend their life.
Washing Sheer Curtains
This category of instructions applies to curtains that have been made without any blockout lining. If you are at all unsure about whether to machine wash your curtains, a good practice when washing any item is to check the care label. While spot cleaning is effective for small marks (see below), we do recommend washing your sheers around once a year.
It is ideal to wash your sheers in a laundry bag with the hooks removed to prevent any rips or pulls. We do make large laundry bags for washing sheers, these are free when you purchase our sheers (or come in and mention this post).
Blockout or Blockout-Lined Curtains
Blockout curtains are typically distinguished by their backing, if you check the back of the curtain and is has a rubbery or suede feel to the back, then it is likely a blockout fabric and should not be machine washed.
Why We Don’t Recommend Washing or Dry Cleaning
Machine washing the wrong fabric can:
- Remove the dressing in fabric
- Deteriorate the backing on coated fabrics
- May shrink the fabric
- May stretch the fabric
- May tear if fabric is weak
In our workshop, we exclusively use blockout fabrics that can be dry cleaned; unfortunately not all fabrics are created equal. We recommend checking that your linings can be dry cleaned by checking any attached care labels and conducting a patch test in a small, inconspicuous area.
How to Spot Clean:
- Read care label
- Test in inconspicuous spot using the following (depending on the type of stain & type of fabric)
- Magic Eraser (try dry first, then dampened)
- Wonder Soap & Water (using a cloth or toothbrush to gently rub mark away)
- Dry Cleaning Fluid (White Spirits, Methylated Spirits)
- Baby Powder may be of use to reduce water marks
Want some great videos on this subject? We have a YouTube channel where we’re always adding new resources!
