100% Silk, dry clean only top. Can I hand wash it?

[EduCated]

Um, we'll, just that really

I do and they're fine

Yes, but you need to iron it immediately (with a tee-towel on top and underneath), dry on a hanger or flat over the bath on a rack, then iron again when almost dry.

It's a bit of a faff, but otherwise you'll never get it to look as good as the dry cleaners do...

You can wash it in the machine using the "hand wash" cycle or the "delicates". Use v low (or none at all) spin & a cool temp.

I hand wash all my silk stuff - can't be bothered with faff. It's going to look better hand washed and worn than it is in the dirty washing pile/always in the wardrobe cos it's too much faff to dry clean.

You can buy kits to dry clean yourself using the tumble dryer, but I'm not sure how good they are.

But yes, I've done similar, with no problem.

my machine has a silk wash cycle on it - maybe yours does too

I've washed heaps of dry clean only stuff - but I normally wait till I wouldn't mind if it went a bit wrong iyswim. Anyway, nothing has gone wrong so I have less fear now! Cold water though. Not in any way warm to the touch at all.

I wash a silk dress in the machine - on a delicate cool wash.

So far so good.

I'll give it a go. It's not dirty as in gumph on it, just worn dirty, if that makes sense. Will probably just dunk it in cold water a few times.

I think my machine probably will have a silk/delicates setting, but it also appears to be an industrial unit my landlord's stolen from NASA, judging by the power of it, so I wouldn't trust it to do gentle

Have you had it dry cleaned before? A Malaysian friend of mine told me that it was ok to hand wash 100% silk stuff so long as it hadn't already been dry-cleaned, but once you start with the dry-cleaning, it's more risky to wash it after.

I always wash stuff - only thing's I've buggered up = a pair of linen trousers (not mine) and a very fine knit cardigan, that I should have put in a laundry bag and didn't.

It really depends on the colours. If it is a block colour then you should be fine, but if it has more than one colour (especially colours and white) then you run the risk of completely ruining it. One of the main reasons for dry cleaning is that given the "dry" bit, the colours don't run.
If it is a block colour, I'd hand wash rather than machine - it may be okay after a few machine washes, but it will definitely shorten the lifespan of the item. Should be fine though if hand washed and no colours.

It's a plain black vest type top, so I think I'll give it a go. Not been dry cleaned before. Thanks all