Plush, minky, cuddle fabric… whatever you like to call it! (For an update on why we don’t call the fabric “minky” in the UK like the rest of the world does see this post) There’s no mistaking the lusciousness that started me on the road to our online shop. The trouble is (for us) the last 50cm-75cm of every bolt we have can only be sold as a fabric remnant. The pile near to the centre of the bolt gets brushed up the wrong way and crushed when the weight of the rest of the fabric piles on top of it. Then it’s stored by the manufacturer for a while and in that time unfortunately the pile goes a bit wayward and no amount of stroking it puts it back to it’s former glory. The fabric isn’t permanently like this as the pile isn’t damaged per se, it’s just got a bit of bed hair so needs a little coaxing to restore it.

We finish a lot of plush bolts each week which means we have a lot of remnants being created all of the time, in fact we are drowning in the stuff. We have a whole corner of our warehouse dedicated to plush remnants! There are just too many for us to list for sale individually so we also sell bundles at a reduced price. I thought I’d share this quick guide on how to breathe the life back in to the end of roll plush fabric. It’s perfectly good, and a bargain too so it’s worth considering having a go at this if you are a plush lover.

Everything I’d ever read about plush or minky fabric told me never to iron the fabric, not surprising when you think that it’s 100% polyester so liable to melt! I first discovered this technique completely by accident, I was experimenting with some plush remnants to see if I could iron on Bondaweb to the reverse of the fabric and run it through our die cutter machine to make some plush appliqué shapes. Low and behold, not only did the Bondaweb stick, and I could, but the pile on the plush was completely restored.

Restoring Smooth Plush (Smooth Minky Fabric)

1) Set your iron to low and turn off the steam and iron the reverse of the fabric

Often that’s all you need to do! It very much depends on the extent of the issue and will vary each time.

2) If you find this hasn’t worked try increasing the heat slightly. I’d recommend never getting any higher that the wool setting on your iron, any higher and you risk melting the fabric.

3) Sometimes the higher heat still doesn’t fully do the job and some bed hair remains, if that’s the case then flip your fabric over and iron the right side, making sure that the iron passes in the same direction as the pile.

 

How to Restore Dimple Plush (Dimple Minky Fabric)

Now dimple is a different beast, whatever you do don’t go ironing dimple as otherwise the dimples will disappear. For ages I didn’t think anything could be done to restore dimple without a wash but then I had a brain wave and had another little experiment… and it worked!

Here’s a before picture…

All you need to do is pop your dimple plush in the tumble dryer for 10 minutes (mine was on the highest setting). Don’t leave it sitting in there to cool or it will crease more. Remove it and smooth the pile down

And here’s the finished result, perfect!

 

Most cuts will restore as good as new using these methods, but some are stubborn and just won’t completely disappear this way, but the pile will always restore after a launder in the washing machine as these bad hair days are not a permanent thing.

If you have discovered a different method then I’d love to hear it.

Happy Days!