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From time to time, suede and leather items with excessive amounts of blood or vomit soaked into them are brought in for cleaning.

The blood may have come from an uncontrollable nose bleed or perhaps an automobile accident or some other kind of accident.

These suede and leather Items are usually stiff with dried blood or vomit when received. The soaked-in dried blood or vomit is usually so extensive that the item is essentially ruined and not usable.

Before accepting or doing anything to such an item, get a signed risk release from the customer. The customer must assume full risk and the responsibility for the costs for the procedures that must be followed to attempt to restore their suede or leather item.

Get the customer risk signature on the order ticket and explain to them that there are components in the blood or vomit that have already affected the color and texture of the skin, including color loss and stiffening and that these problems would become evident after the blood or vomit residues are removed.

The first step in the procedure is to pre-spot the item with a specially formulated wet side leather pre-spotter. Then blot up the blood or vomit that dissolves.

Next, leather clean the item using a special leather cleaning detergent plus conditioner. In many cases the stain may be so extensive that pre-spotting would be far too time consuming to be practical.

The best way to attempt to remove blood or vomit from an extensively stained item is to soak it and wetclean it in cold water mixed with specially formulated leather wetcleaning products .

Soaking a suede or leather may be accomplished by immersing it in a container of cold water mixed with a special wetcleaning leather detergent plus conditioner.

Allow the item to soak in the detergent plus conditioner mixture overnight so the blood or vomit can dissolve out of the skin.

The suede or leather item can be agitated manually several times during the soaking. It can also be gently wrung out by hand and the water and leather detergent plus conditioner mixture replaced several times during the soaking procedure.

If the blood or vomit has not been in the garment too long, this soaking procedure should be sufficient to remove all or most of it.

The suede or leather garment should then be rinsed in cool water mixed with a special leather softener. It should then be hung on a plastic hanger while wet and allowed to air dry at normal room temperature.

Caution: Do not dry with heat! Heat will cause the skin to become stiff and hard.

After the suede or leather has thoroughly dried, it may be drycleaned in drycleaning fluid that has been conditioned with a special leather cleaning detergent plus conditioner to restore the soft, supple feel of the item.

The clean, dry suede or leather can then be sprayed with a neutral spray product formulated specifically for spraying naked leather and suede. A hand trigger sprayer may be used to impart a more supple feel and to bring out the color.

If the color is lighter because of the affect of the components in the blood or vomit, redyeing may be necessary. This can be accomplished by spraying the item with a specially formulated leather dye mixed with a neutral spray product.

If soaking is not sufficient to remove the blood or vomit, then wetcleaning is the next procedure to follow. This means that you wash the suede or leather as follows:

Any washing machine can be used to wetclean suedes or leathers as follows:

First, load the washer at half the recommended poundage capacity with dry suedes or leathers.

If the suedes or leathers are color sensitive to water use a specially formulated leather wetcleaning dye fixer to set the dye. Prewash for three to five minutes in cool water. Do not use hot water because it can damage the skins.

Next, add a specially formulated wetcleaning detergent plus conditioner using the manufacturers recommended dosage per pound or per suede or leather. Use only a biodegradable leather detergent with conditioner formulated for wetcleaning suedes and leathers to avoid damage.

Wash the leathers for no more than five minutes; for suedes, wash 10 minutes or more in cool water.

Finally, add a specially formulated leather softener conditioner to the washer in the final rinse cycle to condition and soften the suedes or leathers. Then rinse for three to five minutes with the leather softener conditioner in cool water at a temperature of 100°F or less.

Dry the wet suedes or leathers by hanging them to air dry at ambient air temperature. To accelerate drying, tumble them in a cool dryer at a temperature of 100°F or less. Do not use heat to dry the wet suedes or leathers as heat will damage the wet skins unless drying can be done in a special dryer that has a micro-processor that controls the relative humidity.

The clean, dry suede or naked leather can then be sprayed with a special leather neutral spray product to further enhance the depth of color and softness of the skin.

If color restoration is necessary, spray with a specially formulated leather dye. If water and stain repellency is desired, use a specially formulated suede and leather water and stain repellent product.