The Stain Library

Material

Sheepskin

Wool on tanned leather. The wool washes cold with a wool detergent, the leather backing must not be soaked, and heat shrinks both.

  • SurfacePorous
  • WashingHand
  • Colour run riskMedium
  • Reviewed7 September 2026

What sheepskin can and cannot take

  • Heat Avoid
  • Water and soaking Use with care
  • Acids, including vinegar Use with care
  • Strong alkalis Avoid
  • Solvents Avoid
  • Chlorine bleach Avoid
  • Abrasives Use with care

Always test on a hidden area first and let it dry before you treat the visible mark.

General rules for sheepskin

Work on the wool and keep the skin as dry as you can. That means treating the mark rather than washing the whole thing, wherever the mark is small enough to allow it.

Cold water, no warmer than 30 C, and a wool specific detergent only. Ordinary detergent strips the natural oils and leaves the wool brittle and matted.

Never tumble dry it and never dry it on a radiator. Heat shrinks both the wool and the skin, and a shrunken sheepskin is permanently smaller and hard.

Check the label

A sheepskin is two materials that want opposite things: wool on the front and tanned leather on the back. The wool can be washed. The skin cannot be soaked, because water in the leather stiffens it and can stain it, and no amount of care to the wool fixes a ruined backing.

Stains on sheepskin

A sheepskin is a hide with the fleece still on it, so it is a leather product and a wool product at once.

The backing decides the method

Tanned skin that gets thoroughly wet dries hard and can mark, and the tannery's own guidance is not to saturate a sheepskin because liquid seeping into the leather damages or stains it. That is why spot treatment beats washing whenever the mark is small.

The wool needs its oils

Ordinary laundry detergent strips the natural lanolin out of the fleece, leaving it brittle and matted. A wool specific detergent is not a refinement here, it is the difference between a soft sheepskin and a stiff one.

Heat shrinks it twice

Tumble drying shrinks the fibres, and it shrinks the hide as well. A sheepskin pram liner that has been through a dryer does not go back to its old size.

It brushes back

Matted fleece can often be brought back with a slicker brush once it is fully dry, so a sheepskin that looks ruined wet is often fine a day later.

Sources

What we checked and when. Where a manufacturer instruction disagrees with anything here, follow the manufacturer.

  1. Sheepskin care and maintenance, Skyeskyns manufacturer

    UK tannery guidance that sheepskin is washed in cold water no warmer than 30 C with a wool specific detergent only, because ordinary detergent strips the natural oils and leaves the wool brittle and matted, that the skin must not be saturated because liquid seeping into the leather damages or stains it, that it is never tumble dried because heat shrinks the fibres, and that it is squeezed rather than wrung.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  2. How to wash wool, Woolmark trade body

    Wool industry body guidance that wool garments are machine washed on the wool setting, which is a gentle action at 40 C, or hand washed in lukewarm water at about 30 C, that a neutral mild detergent should be used, and that garments are dried flat rather than tumble dried.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  3. How to remove baby formula stains, Purex Stain Lab manufacturer

    Manufacturer guidance identifying breast milk, formula and baby spit-up as protein stains, explaining the role of enzymes, and warning that the mark should be checked before any drying heat because heat sets what remains.

    Checked 7 September 2026