How To Clean Vintage Leather Coats

Learning how to clean vintage leather coats can prove to be quite rewarding and something that you can actually carry with you all your life and the life of your coat. Some simple steps performed from the comfort of your home can prevent the usual tear and fraying accompanied with owning leather.  Depending on how soiled or dirty the leather is your treatment of the leather will vary.

Much Needed Items:

• a bowl of warm soapy water
• two soft cloths
• some kind of leather conditioner
• somewhere where you can lay the coat out or a padded rack to hang it on. 

1. Take the leather coat and with a bowl of warm soapy water that is made out of baby shampoo in it begin to clean the leather.
2. When washing it use a gentle wash cloth to keep from abusing the leather.
3. Now that the coat has been cleaned take another soft cloth and wipe away any excess water or soap that might remain on the vintage leather coat. 
4. You can also run warm water over the coat or continue to wipe it off with the clean cloth. 
5. Now its time to air dry the leather. It's important to lay it on a flat surface so that it will dry free from stretches or extreme heat.  
6. Keep the leather out of direct sunlight or away from an open fireplace. 
7. Now if you want to actually avoid doing the hands on steps you can actually run it in a washer set on delicate or wool cycle. 
8. Once the coat is completely dry it needs to be conditioned and this is very important so that you will not crack the leather or let the leather dry out and become hard and unmanageable. (avoid any conditioners that have silicone or waxes in them these will hinder the leather from breathing.)
9. Take a tack cloth or a micro fiber cloth that has been pre wet with water and then mix it with the conditioner so that there is not to much conditioner on the coat.  
10. Its always best to do light applications of conditioner than heavy ones. 

With all these steps in your arsenal you can definitely clean that vintage leather coat that means so much to you.  If these steps are way too much for you to do then luckily their are places that specialize in the cleaning of these precious items.