There are few clothes that you can wear almost every season – one of them is a sweater. You can layer it with a coat in the winter, or over a t-shirt in the spring and on cooler summer days.
Extend your sweater’s life with these 10 tips.
1. Understand the textile
Before you buy a sweater, study the weave of the material (especially on wool and cashmere items). The weaving technique and type of wool should feel tight: The looser the weave, the greater the chance that your sweater will pill.
2. Work gently with your sweater
Handle your sweater gently – this includes the way you wash, hang, dry and store the sweater. Unlike cotton and synthetic materials, wool does not need to be washed regularly. Sometimes you can just treat the stains and hang them outside over a table or drying rack. You’ll be surprised how much longer your sweater will last if you handle it with more care.
3. Know how to wash your sweater.
These days, sweaters don’t just have to be washed by hand. The protective wax layer on wool fibres makes wool products resistant to stains and they also accumulate less dust as wool is naturally anti-static. This means you can wash most of your sweater on a light cycle in the washing machine without damaging the material.
4. … But be careful
Over time, natural body oils, sweat and perfume will build up on the sweater. This build-up can cause the protective fibres of the jersey to break down. Regarding the previous tip, you should still handle wool sweaters with care – you can wash them gently, with a small amount of soap and cold water by hand or on the wool cycle in a washing machine. This prevents the sweater from shrinking. Then remove excess water by rolling the sweater in a towel and pressing gently.
5. Do not leave it in water for a long time
When you wash your sweater, don’t soak it in water for too long as wool does not do well with prolonged exposure to water. Making this mistake can quickly stretch your sweater or damage its quality.
6. Don’t hang up your sweater
Never hang a sweater to dry, this can stretch the fabric (especially when the fibres are heavy with water) and destroy your garment’s shape. Lay your sweater flat on a drying rack.
7. Wash all your sweaters together
Hard fabrics such as denim can cause wool and other delicate fabrics to pill more easily. Just like with jeans, it’s best to turn your sweater inside out before washing it. For extra protection, keep knitwear items separate in an underwear pouch.
8. Don’t use a tumble dryer
Even if the care label says that you may throw your garment in the dryer, we advise you not to take that risk – rather lay it flat on a towel to dry and you will prevent the sweater from shrinking and pilling.
9. How to deal with pilling:
All wool materials will pill to a certain extent. This happens more commonly with softer fibers and often occurs in the areas where it comes into contact with other materials, for example where your arm rubs against your body. This can make your garment look worse for wear. Remove it with a jersey comb, lint remover or a fluff shaver.
10. Our best tip: Always wear a cotton shirt under your sweater
This prevents the oils and sweat from your body penetrating the textile fibres of the sweater, meaning it stays clean for longer before you need to wash it again.
Written by Karlien Meiring.
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Feature Image: Unsplash / Irina Sergeeva
