A handheld appliance for emitting steam to treat a fabric has a housing, a water reservoir, a pump, and a steam generator operatively connected to the pump. The housing has an annular steam emitting head having a hole passing through the steam head. The steam head has an outlet with a shape surrounding the hole so that steam inside the steam head is emitted out of the steam head through the outlet around the hole. A handheld appliance for emitting steam to treat a fabric also has a housing having a water reservoir, a pump, a steam generator operatively connected to the pump, and an outlet. The steam generator forms a steam path that has a first layer that extends from an inlet into the steam generator on a first side of a heater to a second layer that is on a second side of the heater opposite to the first layer.