Everything About Taking Care ofr Designer Clothing Fabrics

HOW TO CARE FOR FABRICS:

The best rule to follow for the care instructions are the manufacturer's label on the clothing. If there is no such label and/or you wish to wash a clothing or fabric at home instead of dry clean, the properties of each fabric will help with determining the best care for the garment or fabric.

Dry Cleaning:

Develop a dialogue with your dry cleaner. Note the stain types that you have on your garment and list it for the dry cleaner. Their pre-spotting method will help eliminate stains forever that could otherwise be heat set after the garment is cleaned.

Wet Cleaning:

Wet Cleaning is described as the new process by cleaning establishments. Most people advertise that their process will eventually replace dry cleaning and the environmentally dangerous solvents they use. However, this process is still not perfected and proven to effectively replace dry cleaning; caution should be used by the consumer. Wet cleaning is done by using water based chemicals. This process works well with some clothing or fabrics which have manufacturer's labels stating "hand wash". Garments with manufacturer's labels printed "dry clean only" may wrinkle, fade, or shrink so badly that pressing does not restore then original look of the fabric.

Do-It-Yourself:

Home Laundering is not only easy to control dry cleaning and laundry costs, but can add life to your clothing and garments. Choosing a detergent for home laundering is an important task.

General purpose detergents for home laundry work well on most washable fabrics. Recently, companies of detergent have started to reduce the amount of fillers in their detergent products, thus the amount of detergent required per load of laundry is less. Read the label to determine the chemicals and effects, various additives. Bleach may be added gradually to remove the dyes or color stains unless the garment is colorfast to bleach. All detergents have "surfactants" in them and this is nothing new. Whiteners can be either bluing agents or bleach.

Gentle Hand washing detergents can be used for home laundry and for cleaning fine fabrics. Most detergent products are often effective when used with cold water. Things to look for when using detergents include, complete rinsing of the detergent after the wash and quick dissolving in cold water.

To test the detergents or any detergent, dissolve recommended amount of detergent in a quart of cold water. Allow the water and detergent to sit for 24 hours. Note the residue, if any, in the bottom of the quart jar. This residue may be difficult to rinse out of your garment and is a clear sign to measure the quality of a detergent.

Shampoos are also used for hand washing garments. Use a good shampoo, not one containing "creme rinse". If the shampoo you use cleans your hair and leaves it smooth, shiny with no residues, it usually cleans your garment too.

Fabric softeners, both dryer sheets and liquid, add finish to your fabrics. Some of the softeners are wax based which leaves a coating on the fibers creating a feel of softer but reducing the absorbency of the fiber. Some softeners have a perfume that is allergy related for many people. When you have used a fabric softener dryer sheet with polyester garments, you may have seen "grease" spots appear on your garment. This is actually a wax and can be removed by re-washing.