How to Care For Your Handmade Clothing

Handmade clothing items, like knitted scarves or crocheted shawls, are some of my favorite things in the world. If you’re into handmade or recycled clothing items like I am, you know that it can get a little tricky to care for them. Besides taking these items to the Boston dry cleaner near me, I can also care for my handmade scarves or shawls and other items at home. Here are some tips for how to do that.

Photo by Rebecca Grant on Unsplash

Items Made From Yarn

If you’ve been gifted a homemade item knitted or crocheted from yarn, there are several different materials that yarn can be made from. If it was given to you, be sure to ask whether it should be hand washed or dry cleaned, as the instructions would have been on the yarn label. But if you’re not sure what kind of yarn it was, always hand wash it. Cotton and acrylic yarn is usually machine washable, however, wool, bamboo and other delicate fibers are just too sensitive to throw in the wash. Hand wash your item in cool water with just a tiny amount of detergent, and then lay flat to dry.

Handsewn Garments

Handsewn clothing is another tricky thing to wash. Unless you were given specific instructions on how to care for it, you should always hand wash. If there are stains that you just can’t get out yourself, check with dry cleaners nearby, they will most likely be able to treat the item. Lots of handsewn clothing are a mix of different fibers, so although one fiber may be machine washable, another may not. So instead of throwing it in the laundry, take the time to hand wash and lay flat to dry. This will also prevent the garment from shrinking or losing its shape.

If the garment is very precious to you, you might consider using a fine dry cleaning service, where personal attention is given to the garment by a trained specialist at the dry cleaner. So take care of those special clothing items, and they’ll last for years to come.