Give your garment the love it deserves! At Danni Rose Designs, we’re clearly big fans of quality garments. Previously, we’ve discussed how investing a bit more into your clothing means you’re more inclined to look after them. For this month’s blog post, we thought we’d give you a few tips on how to put this into practice.
The Wash Cycle
- Firstly, the wash cycle is a big part of the garment’s life. How often you wash your clothes plays a big part in how long it lasts. It’s a common misconception that after wearing an item once, it is ‘dirty’ and needs to be washed. But this is not true!
- Denim is so great, in that you don’t need to wash it often. Levi’s have said you only need to wash your jeans every 6 weeks. Before putting them in the machine, think to yourself: Can I spot clean that stain? Take out a toothbrush or an old cloth, get some soap and you’re probably good to go. Remember: the more you wash your denim, the quicker they wear out.
- To give your jumper the love it really deserves, take the time to give it a cold hand-wash and lie it out flat to dry. This process will stop the colour fading and the garment shrinking.
- If the garment tag says ‘dry clean only’ it isn’t lying to you. It should only be dry cleaned. It’s important to read your care labels, they’ll give you the information you need.
- For your colourful items, don’t let the sun absorb their vibrancy! Hang them up in the shade or inside and keep the colour in the garment. In addition, don’t put your colours with your blacks or whites. Take the time to separate them all out and have different loads.
Repairing Items
Now, what about repairing items, extending their life? If you’ve invested in a quality garment, hopefully it won’t need repairs, at least not for a long time. But we thought we’d provide some information for those op shop buys. So many garments that can be saved by spending some time putting it back together. Especially when 100 million kilograms of textile waste goes to the landfill each year.
- The Clothing Project, 2018.
So here are some easy ways to revive a garment...
If you’ve got stains on your whites, try some quality, environmentally friendly stain remover to get them out. Danni recommends the Ethique bar. Oils stains can be a bit more stubborn, but we've recently learned that earth-friendly dishwashing liquid can get these out! It’s worth a shot.
For garments made from cotton, silk, wool or linen, natural dye is another way to go! Using natural dye gets rid of stains and also mixes things up at the same time. And natural dye is so much better for the environment than using nasty chemicals. Danni’s tested out natural dyes before, she used onion skins, avocado pip and madda root to dye a kimono. Here are the results….
Here’s a good little tutorial to follow if you’re a beginner: https://www.diynatural.com/natural-fabric-dyes/
Last of all, have you ever given up on an item because it was missing a button or had a small hole? Places as accessible as the supermarket have repair kits. Op shops always have a trusty thread and button section too! You’d be surprised by how much you can learn from a 5 minute Youtube tutorial. You’ll be patching holes and sewing buttons in no time.
Of course, the more effort you put into loving and caring for your pieces, the more you will appreciate, value and ultimately wear them! Whether it’s an item you discovered in an op shop, or a quality piece that you saved for… the garment deserves your love and care.