Can You Bleach Silk?

Can you use bleach to clean silk? Find out if you can bleach silk fabric like shirts and pillowcases. Make sure you don't accidentally turn your silk yellow.

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Question

Need your help. I accidentally bleached a white silk top and it turned yellow. I didn’t realize it’s not suitable for silk. How can I turn it white again?

Answer

That’s too bad about your silk top. I wish I had better news for you, but unfortunately it can’t be restored. While so many fabrics can be safely bleached, it’s important to keep track of the fabrics it shouldn’t be used on. In addition to not bleaching silk, you also want to avoid bleaching animal hair fibers (wool, cashmere, alpaca, angora, mohair, etc.) as well as leather and spandex. Thanks for writing!