Cleaning Kimono

[akihito89]

This topic has quite likely been discussed in the past, and if that's the case, I'm bring it back for further discussion.

How do you clean kimonos? OF course, you can throw it in a tub of water with gentle soap and pray that dye doesn't run or fade and that the stain(s) you're risking your kimono to remove actually come out. YOu could take it to a dry cleaner and pay them alot of money to ruin it for you. I've done both.

The experimantal handwashing has had a mix of success and disaster. DryClean USA was just a disaster. They got rust on a shiromuku and offered excuses and even blamed me. I then bagan experimenting with my own washing methods. I have since then ruined another shiromuku that I was told was worth $5000 . When It was worth all that money, it was bright and beautiful. I had cleaned it once or twice with almost no problems, but the last time, I poped alot of seems and it is dull anstead of shiney. My furisode has been cleaned a couple of times, and is very faded. Another is pink due to dye running. Another shiromuku is near perfect with the exception of some stains from being worn on the sleeve openings.

My current plan is to obtain new kimonos to replace the ruined ones and use them in mud fight movies to sell online to fund my new kimonos. I could also wear them as a halloween costume orould be sleep in them. I think I have an acceptable means of storing kimonos. I just need a way to clean them. It would be great if I could find a drycleaner that I could trust. I'm afraid to get my montsukis wet because I know those mons wtoast. Black dye running all over a relatively small white place would be worse than getting mud out of a shiromuku!

I thought about buying stained kimonos for a cheap price and testing different drycleaners in the area, but since few people want stained kimonos, noone carries them that I know of. I just don't want to let some 'friend' ruin stain another furisode or shiromuku and let me finish it off.

What you say?

[bawsin]

Hmm, that's a difficult one.

I have only used a drycleaner's - once - on a silk haori that arrived with several stains that were possibly grease. This is a local drycleaner's that I trust very much. They did their best with the haori, but returned it with a note saying that some stains still remained, and that they would not risk using harsher chemicals to remove the stains (as that would likely damage the fabric).

And that's been my only experience so far. It left me feeling very cautious about the whole subject of cleaning kimono!

Basically, now I shop almost exclusively for items that are unstained -- or at least, items whose stains are practically unnoticeable thanks either to their location on the kimono (on the lining or under the obi), or because the colours and patterns on the kimono makes the flaws almost invisible.

Incidentally, I e-mailed the Wadas two or three months ago asking if they could devote one of their weekly newsletters to the question of caring for kimono - i.e. providing some advice on how to clean and store these precious items, how to protect them against moths, etc.

I received a reply from the Wadas saying Yes, they would like to do an article on this sometime ... but so far they have not. Maybe if other customers write and say they're interested too...?

[Kiyoaki]

Water seems to be the bane of multi-colored silk.

Has anyone tried Fullers Earth? It's a dry chemical powder that will take out oil stains, without any abrasion. It also avoids moistening of the fabric, which can lead to shrinkage or water stains. The chemical is magnesium aluminum silicate, and can be ordered commercially. Do a search on the web for more details.

[Flock]

That sounds good, but I don't know if I can get hold of any, I don't have any stains I need rid of at the mo, but as I wear kimono more often there's always a chance! :S
Has anyone thought of investing in scraps/samples of diffirent kimono silk (EASILY got from ebay because people are patchwork obsessed ) and just trying diffrent cleaners on them? Obviously they might not come ready stained, but you could try everyday things on them and clean them out.
Might take some going out of the way to try this, but it'd be good, anyone who has done something like this please post the results!

[akihito89]

Does Fullers Earth work on fruit juice, pizza, mud, sweat, Dr Pepper, and those wear stains on collars and sleeve openings? Those are the stains I am most likely to have to grapple with, or have experienced already. I've removed most of the above stains, but ruined the kimono at the same time.

seems poping is a real problem. Silk is weaker when it's wet and kimonos are sewn togeather with silk thread. I think they are designed to pop under a certain load, to prevent the kimono's fabric from being stressed too much. The only thing is that my sewing skills are subpar. Another thing is I don't have silk thread. I have made a few decent repairs, but I have a hard enough time, that I leave it alone and hope that the kimono will evolve back togeather in the box.

I think we should create a 'Kimono Resaerch Council' that does this dirty work of finding out how to clean, store and otherwise care for kimonos.

[Kiyoaki]

Fullers Earth works best on grease/oil stains. In Europe, it was originally used to remove the natural lanolin in sheep fleece. Later it was adopted to clean woolen garments, for the most part.

Linen was usually washed in water.

In Europe at least, silk was never cleaned, spoiled garments were usually altered to fit someone smaller, so the tailor could eliminate all the ruined fabric.

I don't think the Japanese ever developed water-fast dyes (with the possiible exception of the browns and blacks found in O-shima tsumugi). So exposure to perspiration or a limited spill, will often result in bleeding. Even if stains can be removed in the wash, all the colors would also lose some of their intensity. Both the leaching effect when submerged in water and fading in sunlight when drying contribute to this problem.

I know there are a lot of problems to solve and no easy answers, but with persistence some will come.

[LynseyM]

Leave it to me to wear my first and most prized peice of Japanese clothing - a very old, delicate silk kimono - while moving hot wax potpourri. Yes, I did manage to spill some of it on the clothing.

I've kept it there for a while now, but I would eventually like to get it off. My mother, who used to work in a fabric store, told me that wax can be removed easily by putting a 100% cotton cloth over the stain and ironing. Supposedly the cotton would absorb the wax as it melted.

I'm scetchy as to how the kimono fabric would hold up, though. Does any one have expereince with irons and silk? The stains are not very noticible (In fact I think one is covered up by the obi) and I'd rather keep the stains then damage the article anymore.

Though I doubt there is much hope here, I also have a little bit of a problem at the bottom hem. Once when I wore it in the spring, I shaved my legs too quickly and ended up getting blood on the inside. Of course, it is on the inside, so it's not the biggest worry in the world.

Many thanks ;D I need to look after my nice clothing a bit better....

[bawsin]

You said, "My mother, who used to work in a fabric store, told me that wax can be removed easily by putting a 100% cotton cloth over the stain and ironing. Supposedly the cotton would absorb the wax as it melted."

We-ell... I think she may have been speaking of candle wax. I've used this method myself, mostly with wool fabric, and after first scraping off as much of the hardened wax as I could. It works in that situation - sort of.

But even then, my experience is that ironing does not remove the stain completely. A darker area usually remains where the spill took place. This is particularly likely when the fabric is silk. That stuff seems to drink up oil and grease! And if your potpourri wax was/is completely liquid, I don't think that the ironing method will help at all. What's worse, it might even set the stain further.

If I were you, I would locate a really trustworthy drycleaner, and take the kimono in to them. (They may be able to help you with the blood spot, too!) If the cleaners are good at their job, they'll do everything they can to remove the spots - BUT, will hold back on using stronger chemicals if they sense that spot removal may damage the fabric.