A Guide to the Care and Cleaning of Your Jacket Patches
Whether you’re a police officer or EMT with patches on your uniform or a creative personality showing off your interests and hobbies, patches are one of the most traditional ways to elevate your look.
However, knowing how to clean and care for clothing with custom patches and the patches themselves can be confusing. After all, your patches should stay in their prime to look their best.
If you’re unsure how to keep your jacket patches in prime condition, you’ll want to keep reading. You’ll find the most comprehensive guide to caring for and cleaning your patches to help showcase your personality.
Storing Patches That Haven’t Been Used
Before you can start cleaning the patches that are already on your jacket, you’ll need to understand how to store the patches you’re collecting.
If you haven’t had the chance to iron the patches on your jacket, ensuring you store them properly can help them from becoming stand, damaged, or faded.
Avoid throwing them into drawers with pens, scissors, or other items that can cause damage to the patch. Instead, you’ll want to find a designated location to keep your collection safe.
You should also avoid leaving patches in direct sunlight, as this can fade the colors, making your patches less vibrant. Similarly, if they have an adhesive back, the sunlight could activate the glue, thus making it hard to attach it to your jacket later.
Keeping your patches in a cool, dry place is recommended. You can use something as simple as a shoebox to store them or elevate your organization with a box with individual storage space.
This is especially true if you’ve designed custom patches for creative brands and plan on shipping them soon, as you want to ensure they arrive to the customer in the best condition.
Ironing on Patches
Next, you’ll need to be careful when ironing new patches onto your jacket. This is essential to ensuring they look great, as improperly fixing them to the material can ruin the patch and the look of the jacket!
One of the most common types of patches, ironing one on is a simple process, but doing so incorrectly can ruin the appearance of the design.
To begin, warm your iron to medium-high heat, and determine where you’d like the patch on the jacket. Next, you’ll want to cover the patch with a piece of fabric and place the iron on the patch for at least forty-five seconds with firm pressure.
Next, you’ll want to flip the jacket inside out and place the iron on the back of the patch for thirty seconds to bond the adhesive to the jacket. If the patch feels loose, repeat the step until it is securely fixed to the jacket.
Washing Your Jacket
Once you’ve added your patches to your jacket and worn it out multiple times, you may notice that it’s getting dirty or dingy. However, you may be hesitant to wash it out of fear it will ruin the patches.
Luckily, there are plenty of jacket patch options for cleaning to freshen up the garment without damaging the patches. No matter how you choose to wash it, ensuring you turn it inside out is key to preventing damage.
One of the best ways to gently clean your jacket is to hand wash it. However, if you don’t have the space to hand wash it, putting the jacket in a gentle wash cycle in the machine can help get a deeper clean.
It’s essential to remember to use cold water to clean the jacket. If you’ve ironed the patches on, hot water can loosen the adhesive used, causing the patches to fall off, making it challenging to reattach them.
However, if you’re too afraid of ruining patches due to their rarity or sentimental value, you can bring it to a dry cleaner. They will be able to clean the article of clothing without damaging any of the patches in the process.
Drying the Jacket
After you wash your patched jacket, you may be tempted to throw it in the dryer with the rest of your clothing. However, much like leaving the patch in direct sunlight, putting it in the dryer can ruin the appearance of your jacket.
The heat settings on the dryer are much too high to keep iron-on patches secured to the jacket material. This means within minutes you can ruin the appearance of your clothing, and waste your favorite customized patches!
Instead, letting patched jackets air dry after washing is the best way to ensure you keep them in great condition. If drying outside, try to find a shady spot to let it hang.
Stain Treating
If you notice that one or two of your patches have stains on them, don’t panic! There are plenty of ways to treat blots without ruining the patch itself.
To begin, you’ll want to determine what the stain is. This can be challenging if you don’t remember where it came from, but usually, the appearance can help indicate what the mark is. Once you’ve determined what the stain is, you can gather the proper supplies used to treat that specific material, whether it’s dirt, blood, or grass.
To clean the stain gently, you’ll want to apply a small amount of the clean and, using a soft-bristled toothbrush and lukewarm water, gently rub the stain to help lift it from the material. You can place the jacket in the wash to further remove the stain.
Keeping Your Jacket Patches in Great Condition
Though it may seem simple enough, taking the time to wash and care for your patches is crucial to protecting the design and structure of the material.
If you found this guide to caring for your jacket patches informative, you’ll want to check out the rest of our website. There, you can find more of the best fashion tips and tricks to help you become the next trendsetter.
