Curtains - Dry clean or wash them myself?

tanith

I put my beautiful cream bedroom curtains in the wash and ruined them.. I had to put them back up but they look terrible and will have to be replaced....

DON'T RISK IT...

Nix143

Yup, what everyone else says

I came home one day to find the ex had decided to wash our living room curtains - I swear they must have shrunk about 6"!!!!! looked awful and because the front window ones matched the patio door ones we had to replace both sets - grrrrrr!

northern_star

I recently washed a pair of lined velvet curtains as the dry cleaners had quoted me £25 to clean them. I reckoned I could replace them for that if all went pear shaped. As it happened they came out fine, line dried them and they're as good as new - £25 saved.
However if your curtains would be very expensive to replace perhaps the dry cleaners is your best, safest option.

susank

Velvet ones wash like a rag and come out time after time fine but when I had them new I was frightened to wash them - now they are door curtains dyed navy blue from Beige they get chucked in the wash time after time and they are good.

Gingernutmeg

This is probably a very daft question, but do you have to dry clean curtains, or can you wash them at home?

I'm moving out of my flat soon and I've been told that I have to get all of the curtains cleaned. I've been horrified at the prices I've been given by the local dry-cleaners, the cheapest I can find is touching £50 for the three pairs. The curtains are old, faded, were never the most expensive of curtains and I don't think they've ever been cleaned, and tbh I resent paying so much to get them dry cleaned. I've also been given a minimum time of ten days, and as I live in a real fish-bowl of a flat that's really not practical.

I've had a good look at the curtains and I can only find 'washing instructions' of a sort on one pair, the long full length living room ones. It says that the curtains are made of patterned cotton satin, and that the material can be machine washed at 30 degrees. The lining seems to be just a plain cotton. The two bedroom pairs seem to be made from the same kind of cotton satin but they're plain, and are lined with a thinner cotton material.

Would it be safe to wash these at home, on the very gentlest, coolest wash, with some very mild detergent? (I've got some Filetti so I thought that might do ...) My idea is to wash each curtain separately, then cool iron it and hang it back up to dry fully. Is this something that's do-able, or should I file it under 'a bad idea' and cough up to get them dry cleaned? I've had a look online and the jury seems to be out, so I'd love to hear of any experiences.

Sorry for the essay, but I wanted to give as many details as possible!

tanith

Hi, please be very careful.... I washed what appeared to be an ordinary pair of cotton curtains with linings and they were ruined.... they creased to heck and no matter what I tried I could never get the creases out again... I rewashed , ironed, steamed them damp in fact every damn thing but they were totally ruined they looked like a limp dish cloth...... Have a look in your local laundrette they very often have a large dry cleaning machine and I would guess with 3 pairs of curtains its got to be cheaper than the dry cleaners....

Gingernutmeg

Thanks, that's what I thought I was hoping that as they were cotton it'd be fairly safe, but I suppose the dry cleaning will be cheaper than new curtains so I'd better not risk washing them.

tanith

you could be lucky and get away with but if you will have to buy new is it worth risking it....

mum2one

i would be very careful, i worked in a dry cleaners for my sins previously, and curtains were the biggest rip off.

if they have a P on the label thats dry clean only, also the lining can be a problem, as they can be fire retardant, dry cleaners dont do the tie backs or frills if they are stiff ( excuse the expression), as they sometimes have carboard in.

if they have to be dry cleaned shop around, try independant shops first, as they may do them on the premises, so could be a 48hr turn around.

as the other person said, if they are machine washable go to a laudrette and get them done in a big washer

tanith

mum2one wrote: »

as the other person said, if they are machine washable go to a laudrette and get them done in a big washer

Please don't do this..... only put them in a laundrette DRY CLEANING MACHINE....