Washing dry clean only coat

[slowworm]

I picked up a 50% wool 50% polyester felted donkey jacket style coat, with a nice big hood, from a charity shop. It was probably more fashionable rather than practical when it was made many years ago and has 'dry clean only' on the label.

I would like to give it a clean to freshen it up but dry cleaning will cost more than I paid for the coat. I plan to gently wash it, probably hand wash it in the bath with a wool soap and hand warm water.

Has anyone done that to such a coat? If I'm gentle with it I can't see a problem as the coat must be able to cope with getting wet. It is quite thick but does not have any lining. I expect it'll take a long time to dry so will wait until the hot summer days are here.

Any advice or anything I need to he aware of?

 

[Toddy]

I've done it and it worked fine. I used a very low temperature short wash with minimum spin. I shook the coat into shape, put it on a well shaped hanger and hung it outside to air dry.
I did brush it while it dried, but it didn't need pressed. I think if it did I'd try the one meant for curtains so that the iron didn't do anything weird to the pile.

I'd hate to think I encouraged you and it went amiss, but so far, I've been lucky with the coats I did wash.
I think I've done four now.

 

[Pattree]

I think you are absolutely right @Toddy.

I often go off piste regarding washing instructions. I think that you said in another post, avoid agitating so the fibres don’t lock together and shrink the fabric.
If you wash an outdoor coat in water that’s the temperature of summer rain I can’t see that going wrong - it’s what the coat was designed for. You might want to Scotch Guard it once it’s thoroughly dry.
But:
(Straps on stainless steel bottom shield)
No guarantees!!!!

Off topic but:
What would you do with THIS?????


I stick it in the auto-wash every week.
(It’s a charity shop waxed-until-I-got-hold-of-it waistcoat.)


Edited to add:
I apologise for the word “bottom” in this post but it isn’t the word that I typed.

 

[Toddy]

Pretty much all cotton with a nylon lining. I'd wash it too.
Not hot though, because the cotton can tighten up and not relax again.....unless it's well worn and then it'll not care

 

[grainweevil]

My suspicion is that a modern front-loading machine's wool setting, no spin, may even be gentler on things than an enthusiastic hand wash. Certainly I've - so far, touch wood! - had good success with it. Woolite or equivalent detergent and somewhere to hang it, and I would expect it to be fine.

 

[hughtrimble]

If you can, do the first bit of drying lying it flat so that the big weight of the wet wool doesn't stretch it, then you can hang it up. I lay it out on a flat clothes rack, but others do the towel on a table thing.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I occasionally wash a wool mix coat with a 'Dry clean only' label. Hand wash in tepid water, short spin, hang to dry. It's fine.

 

[slowworm]

Thanks everyone, it'll not just.be Toddy's fault if it goes wrong.

I do a fair bit of washing but I wouldn't say I'm ever enthusiastic about it! The main reason for hand washing really is our machine isn't massive and has occasionally nibbled something if it gets too full.

Plan is to lay out flat to get most of the water off, before drying on a hanger or something to keep its shape. I think it says it'll take a cool iron but no chance of that.