Clothing Care Tips

Nothing is worse than ruining your new clothes with poor care at home. Putting in a bit of effort to care for your quality clothes will help them last longer.

TOP TIPS: MAKING YOUR CLOTHES LAST

• After you wear something, be sure to give it some air by hanging it outside your closet overnight. Airing out your clothes will remove wrinkles and let odours dissipate. You may find you don’t even need to wash it; the less you wash it, the longer it lasts.
• If you find a piece loses its shape, simply let it rest off the hanger between wearings so it can regain its shape.
• Remove fabric pills with a de-fuzzer tool. If you don’t have one, you can use a callus remover tool. Just be gentle.
• Recover stretched-out sweater cuffs by rolling them in a wet washcloth to dampen them, then toss the sweater in the dryer for a few minutes.
• Some chemicals can damage fabrics easily. Let your deodorant and lotions dry completely before dressing.
• Many women ruin a favourite top with their necklaces. Use an emery board to smooth out rough edges on the back of jewellery to prevent clothes from snagging.
• If you get a stain, remove it as quickly as possible. The longer a spot sits, the harder it is to remove, and remember to never iron over a spot—the heat will set the stain. Ink stains can be removed with water-soluble hairspray on washables and rubbing alcohol on dry clean fabrics.
• Never over dry! Overdrying causes static, pilling, shrinkage, wrinkling and puckering seams.
• For most clothes, the key to longevity is to wash your wardrobe on the delicate cycle and hang or lay out clothes flat to dry. Heat does the most damage to fabric. When you pull things from the wash, shake them to remove excess water, hang, and then tug gently on the seams to stretch the thread and minimize puckering. Wool and knits do best when dried flat.