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Leather soled infant shoes: cleaning and careCaring for leather items, can often times be a mystery for most parents. If a leather purse gets dirty; most people donate them. If a leather coat gets dirty, you may take it to the cleaner. However we do tend to feel a bit more comfortable when we are dealing with an adult’s leather shoes; as the supplies to clean and protect them are readily available, and fairly easy to obtain. However when it comes to a child’s soft soled leather shoe’s many of us may become confused, by the conflicting information that is given to us. Most of us have been told all of our lives, that we should not wash leather in a washing machine, and yet this is exactly what most manufacturers of any soft soled infant shoes recommend. You may be thinking, the washing machine? Won’t that ruine my child’s shoes, well we will go over several ways to keep your child’s soft soled leather shoes neat and clean for a long lasting life time. One of the reasons that we are told not to wash leather items; is that a uniform amount of water needs to penetrate all areas of the leather, to prevent any discoloration. While dealing with the size and weight that is used in a child’s soft soled shoe, the ability to properly saturate the leather generally is no longer a problem. Whether they are washed with other clothing or even by themselves, these soft soled shoes (yes even adult sized soft soled leather shoes) can be safely washed in any washing machine.
For this reason, unless it is stated otherwise in the care instructions that you will receive, you should wash them in warm or cold water. I would of course recommend that you add your detergent to the water prior to adding your shoes, and make sure to mix it well. The next step as we all know is to dry the shoes. However, heat will cause the leather to tighten up and shrink in size, for this reason you should never put any leather shoes in the dryer. If you do, you may be surprised to find that they no longer fit after they are retrieved. Even if you may think your shoe’s are too big, I still wouldn’t suggest placing them in the dryer to “re-size” them, as the shrinking will not be uniformly done throughout the shoe, or shoe to shoe; which can cause more harm than good. Instead to dry soft sole leather shoes, rather then using a dryer. You should place them on a towel, and try to ring out as much water out of them as you possibly can. Remember a key step in this, is to reshape the shoes; which will allow them to dry in the perfect shape, rather than a squashed mess. To do this, you may wish to place them over the end of a water bottle; or even lay them flat and allow to air dry. The time it will take to dry these shoes will differ depending on the temperature, and humidity of your location. However the average is anywhere from two to three days, however you may wish to check them half way through, as you may find that you will need to turn them inside out. If this step has you a bit nervous about time, there are a few ways to help speed up the drying of your child’s soft sole shoes. You may wish to take an old wire clothes hanger, and bend both ends upward. With this, you can then hang the top part of each shoe over the raised ends. If you are in the summer months, you may wish to hang it outside in the sun and or wind, however in the winter you can hang them near a vent. This method of drying can reduce the drying of the shoes to up to one day, which will also depend greatly on the climate of your location; however you should still make sure to check them half way through the day, and possibly turn them inside out to complete the drying process. Related information topics:Bob Marley baby clothes |
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