A Word About Laundry

Hopefully, you have completed your wardrobe clean out and are keeping up your idea sewing journal. Today's sewing lesson is a brief discussion about laundry.

"LAUNDRY?! I thought this series is about learning to sew. I KNOWWWW how to do laundry!"

Fair enough, maybe you do know all about laundry. But, if you answer yes to any of these questions, you need to revisit your laundry skills before investing time and money in making garments for yourself.

• Do you only sort your clothes into three piles; whites, darks, and colors?
• Have you wanted to wear something only to put it on and find it stained or wrinkled?
• Do your white shirts and black pants all fade toward grey far too soon?

If you answer yes, then please consider revisiting your laundry guide that came with your machine.

After you know exactly what machine features you have, you need learn to read the laundry symbols on those garment tags. The website Textile Industry Affairs has a no nonsense complete guide to those symbols as well as answers to virtually every kind of laundry problem.

It is one of my personal reference sites for being comprehensive, although it does have a commercial tie with the Clorox bleach company. I tend to use chlorine bleach as a last resort and I prefer pre-treating and soaking before relying on any chlorine bleach. My front loading machine does not recommend using chlorine bleach because of the door gasket and my rural septic system prefers not to have bleach added to it.

Without too much detail, as everyone's laundry is a bit different and I could not, in any way, cover all the possible situations, these are my general laundry guide lines.

Sort by soil first.

Don't put your white athletic socks in the same pile as the white button down shirts.

Sort by color next.

Seriously, your red flannel pajamas should not be washed with your lime green tee-shirt.

Put similar colors together, reds and purples, greens, browns, and blues.

Sort by fabric and care labels.

You are wasting your clothing dollars if you wash  yoga pants with jeans.

All buttons should be open and all zippers should be closed.

Again, you are wasting your time and money, if closed buttons tear your shirts.

Open zippers catch and wear fabrics, especially jean fly zippers.

Use as warm a wash temperature as you can.

Warm water removes soil better than extra soap and bleach. Always cold water rinse.

Dry on lowest setting for the least time possible.

Dryers are tough on clothes. Line dry as often as you can.

If you don't have time to dry, hang and fold the wash as soon as it is done. Don't start it. It's all wasted effort if it molders in the machine. Better to load and soak the wash while you are busy than to wash and forget it.

...And that is all I have to say about laundry. Next up? Your first big sewing purchase!