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Washing a silk ring sling so that it get buttery soft and stays shiny!

Silk is one of the most amazing fabrics for ring slings – it’s light, supportive, breathable and beautiful all at the same time.  One of the most common questions we get asked, though, is about keeping it clean. 

We recommend spot cleaning your carriers (silk or not) as often as possible, but there are times when they simply must be washed!  Sakura Bloom’s silk slings are indeed washable, but simply washing on cold and air drying does change the look of the sling to a less shiny, more matte look.  Some people actually prefer the matte look – if this is you, then you can skip this post! 

The suggestions in this post are for those of you who want to maintain as much of the sheen in your silk sling as possible.  These instructions are by Liz Niedringhaus, a Sakura Bloom fan and customer, who has had lots of luck washing her slings with this method. With Liz’s permission, we created this post from series of posts she made on Sakura Bloom’s fan page, Unthreaded.

Please note that this method comes with no guarantees and is not specifically recommended by the manufacturer. 

How I wash my silks that makes them buttery soft and keeps them shiny

by Liz Neidringhaus

I started with a brand new fresh out of the box Fleur.  Side note – if you’re on the fence about Fleur, DO IT. It’s so good!

WHAT YOU NEED:
– Detergent of your choice. I suggest something without optical brighteners or harsh ingredients (edit – also enzyme free).
– 1/4th cup white vinegar
– A sink or a large bowl, enough space to fully submerge your sling in water.
– Towel

Fill your sink or bowl with cold to lukewarm water (DONT USE HOT), just enough to completely submerge your sling, and add a few drops of your detergent. Submerge your sling, swish it around until the whole thing is saturated, let it soak for 5 minutes, drain and rinse.

Note, if your sling is a darker color you will see color in the water but don’t panic, it’s just excess dye.

Refill sink with the same amount of cold or lukewarm water (DONT USE HOT), add 1/4 cup vinegar. Submerge sling again and swish around in the water, just for a minute or so, then drain and rinse well.

Use a towel to squeeze out excess water. I usually just ball it up, wrap a towel around it and then step on the towel until most of the water is out but there’s probably a more delicate way to do it.  Also, the feel of wet silk is super weird but I promise it won’t stay like that.

Hang to dry. It normally takes a full 24 to 48 hours to dry. Every few hours I normally check on it and pull the edges to help keep it from wrinkling.

Once it’s dry it’s buttery soft and just as shiny as it was before washing. The vinegar can also help bring back shine on a matte sling and it conditions the silk so once it’s dry it’s amazingly soft.

Don’t be afraid to wash your silks!

 

 

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