Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Hand wash in cool water with a mild detergent, moving the water rather than the lace, and press it dry in a towel. If it has to go in the machine, fasten every hook, seal it in a mesh bag, and run delicates cold on the lowest spin. Never wring it, never hang it wet, and keep bleach away whatever colour it is.
Lace fails differently from other delicates. It does not shrink much and it rarely bleeds. It snags, it stretches out of shape, and it pulls a thread that runs. All three are structural, which is why how to wash lace is really a question about what the fabric is made of and how much force it can take.
Lace is a net, so every force lands on one thread
Woven cloth shares a load. Pull on a shirt and the tension spreads across hundreds of adjacent yarns, each carrying a tiny share. Lace has no such continuity — it is an open net of threads crossing at points, with holes between them, so a pull travels along individual threads and concentrates at the crossings. There is no neighbouring fabric to take up the slack.
That difference explains almost every lace failure. A snag is one thread lifted out of its crossing. A stretched neckline is a row of crossings pulled permanently open. A run is one broken thread releasing its neighbours in sequence. None of it is a cleaning problem and no detergent prevents any of it — all three are mechanical, and all three happen while the garment is wet and weak.
How to wash lace, and what the mesh bag is really for
Hand washing is the default. Cool water, a little mild detergent, submerge the item and move the water with your hand rather than rubbing the fabric against itself. Rinse until no suds remain. The full method is on how to hand wash clothes; the lace-specific part is that nothing is ever rubbed, twisted or squeezed.
For the machine, the mesh bag is not optional, and its job runs both ways. Tide describe the usual half: a bag “keeps your bras separate and reducing damaging friction in the wash” (Tide — how to wash bras). The half nobody says out loud is that lace is also the item most likely to wreck something else in the load — an open net with hook-and-eye fastenings is a small fishing net with hooks on it, and it will find a jersey sleeve. Lingerie specifics are on how to wash bras.
The bleach answer that is wrong for most lace sold today
Homes & Gardens answers the bleach question like this: “In short yes, you can use bleach on lace however excessively using bleach can end up damaging the fibers in the fabric” (Homes & Gardens — ways to wash lace at home).
That is sound for antique cotton or linen bobbin lace, and out of date by about seventy years for everything else. Almost all lace sold today is nylon or polyester with elastane running through it for stretch, and Clorox — who make the bleach — put that fibre on their own exclusion list: “avoid bleaching wool, silk, mohair, leather, spandex and non-fast colors” (Clorox — how to use bleach in laundry). Spandex is elastane. When the maker of a product names your fabric in the don’t-use list, that settles it. Silk lace is excluded on the same page, and covered in can you machine wash silk.
Wet lace cannot carry its own weight
Water is heavy, and in a lace garment all of that weight hangs from whatever threads are at the top. Hang a wet lace dress on a hanger and the shoulders carry the entire load through a handful of crossings for as long as it takes to dry. It will be longer when it comes down, and the stretch does not come back. Wringing concentrates the same forces harder, with a twist added.
The right finish is to lay the item on a dry towel, roll the towel up with the lace inside, press along the roll, then unroll and dry it flat, reshaped by hand. Twenty seconds, and it removes more water than wringing.
FAQ
Can you put lace in the washing machine?
Usually yes, inside a fastened mesh bag, on delicates with cold water and the lowest spin. Antique lace, heavily beaded lace and anything already fraying should be hand washed.
What temperature should lace be washed at?
Cold or cool. Homes & Gardens puts the machine range at 60–80°F and says their experts prefer cold hand washing. Heat damages elastane, and elastane is in most modern lace.
Can you tumble dry lace?
No. The heat degrades elastane and the tumbling gives every hook and loose thread something to catch on. Dry it flat.
How do you get yellowing out of white lace?
Soak in equal parts white vinegar and cold water for about thirty minutes, then rinse well. Oxygen bleach is the next step up; chlorine bleach is not.
Can lace be ironed?
Only on the lowest setting through a pressing cloth, and preferably not at all. Steam held clear of the fabric relaxes creases without flattening the pattern.
Fasten it, bag it, press it dry
Nearly all lace damage is mechanical and happens in the thirty seconds either side of the wash — hooks left open, a twist to get the water out, a hanger in a doorway. Deal with those three and the washing looks after itself.
