We’ve all experienced the rush of joy when we receive or purchase a stellar piece of clothing. We bring it home and decide then and there that it’s our new favorite thing to wear. Your friends and family won’t see you in another sweatshirt or t-shirt ever again. That is, until your favorite new garment shrinks, fades or otherwise loses its oomph. Everyone hates when that happens so here are some tips and tricks to get the most out of your favorite clothes and ensure they don’t lose their look and feel.
It’s important to do your best to wash like colors together, whites, colors and darks. This is something everyone’s been taught at some point or another, but we get lazy, or forget, or things slip through. If you can, try separating your clothes before it’s time to wash. Get three different laundry baskets to separate your colored clothing into. It’s also a best practice to wash garments according to their textures as well. Denim clothing should be kept separate from things like t-shirts and delicate clothing should be washed separate from athleisure. Separating by fabric will help with wear and tear. That way, the awesome prints on your graphic tees won’t be rubbed away from coming into contact with your denim jeans.
Another helpful tip is to wash your clothes with cold water. For clothes, heat is generally not great for them, especially if they aren’t super dirty to start with. Cold water will work just fine for a properly clean garment. Plus, washing your clothes with cold water saves on energy consumption and helps the environment! Win win! It’s good to stick to milder laundry detergent as well. Stay away from strong chemicals and bleach as these can deteriorate your prints.
Along the same lines as washing with cold water, when you iron your garment its a good idea to turn it inside-out so you aren’t putting direct heat on the design. It can also be helpful to turn your clothing inside-out while washing to help prevent fading.
As a final helpful tip, let’s talk storage. To save on space in your drawers, instead of folding them, roll up your t-shirts and place them inside. This saves creasing and distortion of the print, and helps reduce wrinkles, which prevents you from having to break out the iron, which typically isn’t good for printed designs anyway.
Hopefully these tips will help you get the best possible life from your custom designed garments. Taking that little bit of extra time and consideration will help you get the most out of your clothes and ensure you can continue to wear them for years to come.
