Clothing Care

Two ways you can learn about your clothing:  1. Hang Tags – Are larger tags attached to new garments. Are removed before wearing. Include pricing information, style, size.  2. Permanently attached labels (or printed in ink )- Mandated to be included by the “Care Labeling Rule” and include information about the clothing such as fiber content.

Care Labels Care labels provide helpful information that can save you time and money. Knowing how to read them can keep your clothes safe! Cleaner, fresher clothes means longer-wearing apparel. Knowing the symbols can help you when you sort laundry.

Labels should include three pieces of information for clothing that will be laundered:  Temperature of water used.  For example – Cold water  Temperature of iron.  For example – Low heat  Any other warnings  For example – No Bleach

Why is knowing the fiber content helpful? It helps you know how to care for the garment, It tell you how well it will wear, And it tells you how comfortable it will be.

Natural Fibers – Come from plants or Animals  Cotton – From a Cotton Plant  Linen – From a Flax Plant  Wool – From a Sheep  Silk – From a Silkworm

Silkworm cocoons:

Synthetic Fibers – Manufactured from chemical elements  Acrylic  Nylon  Polyester  Vinyl  Spandex

How to do Laundry A quick and easy tutorial!

5 Steps to Clean Clothes!  Gather your materials  Separate & evaluate your clothes  Wash your clothes  Dry your clothes  Fold your clothes

Step 1 - Gather Materials  Detergent  Two kinds…bottles (liquid) or boxes (powder)  Bleach  Used to make your WHITES brighter  Use ONLY with WHITE colored clothing and linens  Fabric Softener  Eliminates static cling  Makes clothes soft  Two forms  Liquid…added during the wash cycle  Sheet…added during the dry cycle

Fabric Softener  Please note that liquid fabric softener is DIFFERENT from liquid detergent…if you use this form of softener you must also use detergent!!!  Examples…Bounce, Downy, Snuggles

Step 2 – Why Separate?  Separate and Evaluate Your Clothes  Separate your clothes by color  Separating helps protect the color and durability of your garment  Should an accident occur the damage cannot be undone!  What would happen if a red sock got mixed into white towels?  Look at the care labels

Sorting  Whites  Basic t-shirts, white socks, sheets, pillowcases and other plain white clothing/linens  Lights  Everything from pastels to striped or patterned whites  A white item with enough color (logo/pattern) to make you think doesn’t fit with the whites  Darks  Dark socks, shirts, all jeans, dark pants  Newly dark clothing should be washed alone first  Delicates  Wool garments, sweaters, satin, undergarments  These can be washed in a machine but hand-washing is usually better.

What to evaluate?  Pockets  Are they empty?  Zippers  Are they up? (This prevents snagging)  Ties (hoodies/drawstrings/etc)  Should be tied to prevent losing them or getting them tangled

Step 3  Wash  This is the easy part  Pre-treat any visible stains  Select your cycle  Add your detergent to the machine

Setting Your Machine  Some require you to set the temperature (of the water) others ask you to set a cycle  WHITES  “hot” cycle…vigorous agitation, hot water rinse  LIGHTS & DARKS  “warm” or “permanent press”…mild agitation, extra cool water rinse  cool water protects the colors  DELICATES  “delicate” or “cold” cycle…extremely short and gentle agitation spin cycle

A last few tips…  When in doubt…read the care label!  2 problems that arise  Overloading the machine  Fill the machine ½ to ¾ full  Using too much detergent

Step 4  Drying your nice clean clothes  Clean the lint filter  Add dryer sheets  Unload clothes from washer  Inspect stains…the heat in the dryer will bake it in!

More drying…  Overloading…why is this a problem  Most cycles last minutes  Jeans/towels take longer  Take light cotton items out early to avoid wrinkles  Dry for too long=shrinking!!!  Hang delicates to dry  Helps them maintain shape

Step 5  Folding…the last task!  Begin immediately…avoids wrinkling  Don’t hang sweaters (they will lose shape and take the form of the hanger)  Iron/Hang button down shirts

IRONING VS. PRESSING  Ironing is what we do before we put on clothes, that are wrinkled.  SLIDE your iron back and forth on the fabric with pressure.  Pressing is for sewing. Place the iron down on fabric, then lift it back up in quick intervals.  Repeat this up and down motion, overlapping as you go.