National Clothesline

As we have seen, almost all of the techniques you use in drycleaning and wetcleaning are used in leather and suede cleaning. The same is true when pressing suede and leather.

Let us look at the area of pressing suede and leather. Just as with drycleaned and wetcleaned garments, suede and leather coats and garments should be pressed to look their very best.

For purposes of this discussion, pressing includes:

• Pressing on a press.

• Ironing with a hand iron.

• Forming on a form finisher.

The cardinal rule to remember when press finishing suede and leather garments is to never allow high pressure live steam to come in contact with the skin when the head of the press is closed.

The reason for this rule is that two things are bad for leather: Wetting the skin; and then applying heat to the skin.

The result of doing these two things is that the skin will almost always draw up and shrink unevenly. So the first rule is: “High pressure live steam must never be used when pressing suede and leather on a press”.

The same is true when ironing suede and leather with a hand iron: no steam!

The only exception is for suedes and naked skin leathers and then only if pressed with “wet steam” where the steam that comes in contact with the skin is set at a pressure of 40 psi or lower.

Now when using a form finisher, you can safely use SOME steam to blow out a suede or leather. However, care should be exercised to not get too much steam on soft suedes or painted leather coats. Never steam a fur on the form finisher. By taking these precautions, you will be able to press most suedes and leathers without problems.

As I have explained, pressing suede and leather garments is almost exactly like pressing cloth garments. All the same lays and techniques apply, except you do not let normal live steam contact the suede or leather skin on a press and you brush up the nap of suedes with a suede mitt on the form finisher and a suede brush when the head of the press comes up.