The Fancy Feather method for washing your feather boa
I put a reel up on my Instagram recently sharing the process I followed for washing a (very old) turkey feather boa.
And while I had a few moments of ‘ have I ruined $500 worth of feathers’…. I trusted the process and went with the steps.
The results were a beautiful, fluffy and non sweat smelling boa!
Photo: Boa during the drying phase
The boa cleaning method
I followed the instructions by Fancy Feather, and they had a heap of good advice about cleaning boas based on the type of feather.
Mine was old school turkey feather (not the luxe ostrich) . So my abridged version with bonus tips is:
Get outside or in a laundry or you will end up with stray feather strands in places you didn’t think possible. Wear old clothes and gloves. Take off any jewellery!
Take off any tassels or accessories off you boa if possible.
Fill a large bucket with luke warm (not hot!) water. I added regular dishwashing detergent - I would say about a tablespoon of liquid to a large bucket.
Dunk your boa in the water and swish around. A big wooden spoon or stick would have been helpful here. Or good dishwashing gloves.
This is the part where you will freak out.
I left my boa for about an hour, swirling occasionally. And again, freaking out very often.
After an hour, drain the water carefully. I added a round of lukewarm water and swirled again just to make sure the boa had been rinsed well.
Drain the water again. You will now have a scraggly, wringing wet boa!
Lay your boa out on some old towels. Ideally you want beach towel sized. I then patted my boa down with extra old towels to get the majority of the moisture out.
I then gently ‘wrung out’ any excess water.and wrapped my boa up in another big old towel.
So other tip, make sure you have done your laundry as you will be washing a few towels at the end of this process.
Once my boa was damp and not dripping wet, I laid it over my clothes horse/airing rack. I know the instructions say to dry in sunshine, but the weather turned nasty. So I had to let it dry inside with just the general air and warmth from the heat pump circulating.
It took about 24 hours for the boa to dry, but I imagine in sunlight this would be quicker.
After all this, your result will be a fluffy and clean boa!
Trust the process.
Get the original article here!
Here is the official link to the Fancy Feather tips and tricks on washing your boa. They have a wealth of advice - and great quality feather fans and more! Highly recommend.
Happy washing!
- Grace Cherry, Owner - Miss Kitty’s Meow