Support us on Patreon! Love to Sew Podcast

Follow Helen! Blog: Helen’s  Closet Patterns, Instagram: @helens__closet

Follow Caroline! Shop: Blackbird Fabrics, Instagram: @blackbirdfabrics

Follow the Podcast! Instagram: @lovetosew.podcast, Facebook: /LovetoSewPod

Leave us a voicemail with your questions, comments, and feedback: 1-844-SEW-WHAT (1-844-739-9428)

E-mail us: hello@lovetosewpodcast.com

Sign up for our newsletter to get weekly episode updates, special news, and even some exclusive content that you won’t find anywhere else.

Leave us a review! It will help other sewists discover us.

---

Transcript:

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Helen: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: And I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics. We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s topic: Caring for your Me-Mades.

Caroline: Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: How are you?

Helen: I’m good. How are you?

Caroline: I’m great.

Helen: Happy October!

Caroline: Happy October! Whew. I love October.

Helen: I know. October’s one of those special months that you look forward to. The crunchy leaves, the pumpkin spice lattes, the Halloween spookies. Oh, yeah. Thanksgiving. I mean, for us.

Caroline: Turkey.

Helen: Yes! I’m a big fan of brussel sprouts.

Caroline: Ooh.

Helen: Controversial opinion.

Caroline: Brussel sprout season. I like a roasted brussel sprout. I cannot get behind a boiled brussel sprout though.

Helen: Oh, yeah. Fair. My dad boils them in orange juice, and they’re actually really good.

Caroline: Oh, okay, okay. I would try that. I would try that. Does it get rid of some of the, like, bitterness that…

Helen: Yes, it adds, like, a sweetness to it.

Caroline: Ooh.

Helen: But I do, like, prefer a roasted or even fried.

Caroline: Oh, yeah.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah. With, like, some Parmesan and garlic.

Helen: Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

Caroline: Now I’m hungry.

Helen: Sorry about it.

Caroline: Oh, well, I hope everyone is enjoying the first week of October.

Helen: Yes!

Caroline: We should get to our question. Alright, to kick us off here, we have a question from Shem.

“Help! I want to sew board shorts. I have the pattern by Jalie but the information on the notions is sparse, and I have questions!

“First up: Drawstring? Poly? Cotton? Something else? The internet has not been helpful on this as it seems to be a ton of info for sewing women’s swimsuits but not mens! Secondly: Eyelets for the drawstring? I know the metal matters, but what am I looking for? Third: When working with a drawstring for swim how do you finish the end of the cord? I have seen fancy do-dads for the ends but that doesn’t seem like it would hold up well on swimwear. Lastly: I am also making a speedo type garment to go under and I have the pattern drafted and made my mock up in the planned material that I will use, and it fits great! But that needs a cord as well… I think it’s skinnier… should I just use the same thing? Oh! Just kidding, this is my last question: I was thinking of doing a piping detail on the shorts in the colour blocking seams… How can you do this with swim? Is this the same cording I should use for the draw string?

“Did I say that was my last question? I forgot to ask about Velcro on swimwear, and I don’t know if I need something special… OK… I think that’s it…

“P.S. men want to know how to sew what they like to wear just as much as the ladies! Where’s all the resources and videos?

“Love everything about your show!”

Caroline: Oh, thanks so much, Shem. We got this email after we recorded our Sewing Swimwear 2.0 episode, but before it was released, so we’re really glad to be able to answer it in the podcast now. So for drawstrings, we recommend poly or nylon cord. Synthetic fibres dry quickly like swimwear fabric, so that’s your best bet.

Another option would be to make your own flat drawstring from the same fabric as the trunks, or a complimentary fabric. You could use the same drawstring for the inner drawstring, or you could use a thinner or flatter one for the inner part. It’s up to you.

For the drawstring openings, look for stainless steel or plastic grommets. You could also just do small button holes. Just make sure to interface behind these little openings either way.

And then to finish the ends of the drawstring, you have a couple of options. If you’re using a synthetic cord, you can melt the ends. Just make sure you do this over a flame resistant surface, like a metal sink or pan. You pretty much just have to hold a flame up to the end. It will quickly melt together, and it won’t be able to unravel after.

You could also just tie knots into the ends, leaving a quarter of an inch. And if you use a flat cord, you could turn it under a couple times and hand stitch it down.

Now for a piping detail, you could use a thin synthetic cord or even acrylic yarn sandwiched in the piping fabric. So, yeah, piping definitely doable.

And then regular Velcro is gonna work fine on swimwear. It’s already synthetic, so you don’t need to worry about it holding water.

And thank you, Shem, for pointing out the need for more masculine style swimwear, sewing resources. This is so true. And we hope that the sewing community is gonna hear this and consider contributing more tutorials.

I think it’s time to get to the rest of the show.

Helen: Yes! Okay. I mean, as is evidenced by that email, we put so much work and love and care into sewing our own clothes. So, naturally, we want to maximise their lifespan. And today we’re gonna give you some tips, tricks, and ideas for prolonging the life of your me-mades, or any clothes you own for that matter.

Caroline: Yeah, we’re gonna cover fabric pre-care, sewing tips that are gonna make your clothes last, laundering, treating stains, storage, and mending. There are small steps you can take at each step of the making and wearing process that are gonna help your clothes look great after many wears.

Helen: Okay. I feel like I need to confess before we get into this, that I do not take a ton of special care with caring for my me-mades. I do try my best, of course, not to stain them and rip them and things like that. Um, but when it comes to washing them, I pretty much just throw them all in the wash together and then throw them all in the dryer together and then sometimes I press them and sometimes I just wear them wrinkly.

Caroline: I am pretty similar to you, Helen. I definitely wash and dry most of my clothes in my machines. I will try to separate out my jeans and wash those on their own cause I’ve had some bad experiences with, like, the dye from my jeans, sort of, transferring onto my clothes. Um, and I do try to wash my lights and dark separately for that reason.

But I’m definitely not someone who’s gonna, like, hand wash or hang clothes to dry, unless they’re super delicate. Or if they’re wool cause I also have had a sad experience of washing wool by accident and then it shrank and it was really sad. So now I have a single wool sweater that I wash in my sink and hang to dry, but it’s just one sweater.

Helen: One single special sweater.

Caroline: One single sweater. But I will say though, I feel like if you’re taking some of these steps that we’re gonna talk about today in making your clothes, like making sure that you are finishing your seams and making sure that you’re using high quality notions, then the care afterwards is a little bit easier, right?

Helen: Mhm.

Caroline: Because you’re, kind of, creating these clothes in such a way that they are going to, hopefully, last longer because you’re taking a little bit more care in that process.

Helen: Yeah. And I do find that my me-mades last a lot longer than ready to wear clothes that I have in my closet. I mean, sometimes the seams just fall apart, the buttons just fall right off. I don’t know how they’re sewing on those buttons, but…

Caroline: Yeah, it’s not enough.

Helen: It’s not enough. Yeah. So I, I do think that the care that we take when we make it matters. It’s so true. And yeah, I am aware of it. I try to be careful when I’m washing my clothes. It’s something I think about, but, you know, life gets in the way and sometimes you’re in a rush and you just wash your clothes and that’s fine, too.

Caroline: Totally. Yeah. But I’m excited to get some, get into some of these things today because I learned a lot from, uh, this episode. And I think you did too, right, Helen?

Helen: Yes, I did.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. So before we dive in, let’s talk about pre-care or pre-washing. We’ve touched on this before on the show, but we’re gonna give you a little crash course. So why should we pre-wash, Helen?

Helen: Well, fabrics change when you wash them, especially the first time you wash them. Washing a fabric prior to getting started on your project will help you to avoid any surprises after you’ve put the time and effort into sewing it up.

Fabric on the bolt is usually starched, so pre-washing the fabric will remove that starch and show you how your fabric really looks and feels. The fabric that you end up using will be softer, a little lighter in weight, and less crisp than the fabric on the bolt. I love washing starchy fabric for the first time because when it comes outta that dryer, it’s like magic.

It’s so soft and smooth. And it is like receiving your fabric order all over again.

Caroline: Yes, absolutely. And pre-washing also removes excess dye. That’s why it’s important to pre-wash your fabric by itself, or with like colours, cause you don’t want that dye to transfer onto another fabric if it’s a different colour that you’re washing it with.

And the most important reason to pre-wash is that fabrics shrink the most on the first wash. So this is especially true with natural fibres, like cotton or linen, and cellulose fibres, like rayon, bamboo, Modal, and Tencel. So if you don’t pre-wash these, you might only be able to wear your garment once because after the first wash, it’s gonna be too small. Or it might just shrink a lot in length, which can be really sad if you took the time to hem your garment in exactly the length that you want it to be, and then you wash it and it’s way shorter.

Helen: Ah, yes. I’ve had this heartbreak. I made Sam a button up shirt once and washed it and it was, like, a good three inches shorter than it was when I first made it and he never wore it, so there you go.

Caroline: Yeah. So sad.

Helen: Okay. Now that you have some good reasons why to pre-wash, here’s how to pre-wash. If you have care instructions, either attached to the fabric, written on the bolt, or in the online product description, you’re gonna wanna follow those. This is the best info that you have for fabric care, and it will help you make it last.

Caroline: Yeah, and if not, use the information you have. So what is the fabric made of? The Fabric Store website has an article about how to wash each fibre, and we’re gonna link that in the show notes, so that can be a helpful guide.

If you have a fibre blend, go with the care instructions of the more restrictive fibre. So, for example, you have a cotton silk blend, consider hand washing it or using a gentle cycle on cold, then hang drying. Even though cotton by itself doesn’t need to be treated so gently, silk does.

Helen: Yes, and if you have any doubt about your plan for laundering your fabric, it’s a good idea to wash a swatch of it before you wash the whole piece. You can just cut a little piece, throw it in the load of similar colours, wash and dry it the same way you plan to wash and dry your final garment, and check it when it’s clean and dry. Does it look good? Is it distorted, discoloured, or otherwise messed up? This is how you can figure out how to wash your fabric without messing up your whole piece. Try to remember to measure the piece before you throw it in because that is key if you wanna know the shrinkage.

Caroline: Yes, definitely. And if you’re pre-washing a pretty long piece of fabric, like two yards or more, it might get tangled up in the washer and dryer. Oh, my gosh. This happens to me all the time.

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: There are a few methods to prevent this. You can tie it in a loose overhand knot, like the one you do to start tying your shoelaces. You can safety pin the corners together to make it a big loop. You can also sew the cut edges together for a similar method.

Helen: Yes, there’s even those little laundry clips, I think someone recommended on a previous episode, that cinch your sheets together for washing, that works for fabrics. But I sometimes intervene in my laundry when I’m washing fabrics, in particular. I’ll set a timer, and I’ll check halfway through to see if they are tangled and twisted because it happens all the time with fabric yardage, and my laundry’s right near my desk, so it’s always easy for me to just pop over there and unfurl it and stick it back in for the rest of the wash.

Caroline: So convenient for you.

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: Okay. And what about finishing the edges? Do you finish the edges or not? We usually don’t do this unless we’re working with a loosely woven fabric or one that’s really prone to fraying. Tightly woven fabrics are usually fine without it.

But if you know that you’ll really have to squeeze the pattern pieces in though, you might wanna finish the edges so that you don’t lose any more length than you absolutely have to. Serge or zigzag stitch over the edge, and that’s gonna be just fine.

Helen: Yes. And we’re talking about finishing edges on a big piece of fabric before you wash it.

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: Not before you sew it.

Caroline: Yes. We’ll get you into sewing later.

Helen: Yes. And if you’re feeling rebellious, you don’t always have to follow the care instructions, but keep in mind that they’re usually gonna be your best bet for the longevity of the fabric. You can always go rogue, but we recommend testing before washing a whole piece or, you know, at least wearing it for like a year before you start doing that stuff.

Caroline: Mhm. Yeah, totally. Okay. There are things that you can do during the sewing process to set yourself up for a long lasting garment, so we’re gonna get into that. Our top tip is to finish your seams. There are a bunch of ways to do this. We each have our favourite method that we use for most projects, but it’s worth it to learn a few others because there are some seam finishes that are better suited to certain fabrics.

Finishing seams are gonna prevent seam allowances from unravelling, which could weaken your seams. And some seam finishes even make the seams stronger, like French seams or flat felled seams. We have an episode all about seam finishes that we’re gonna link up in the show notes for you.

Helen: Yes. And if you clip or notch, curved seams, as you’re sewing, make sure not to clip them too close to the seam. Aim for about a quarter inch away. This goes for trimming seam allowances, too, especially if it’s a fabric that frays, or it’s not gonna have any interfacing or under stitching on it. You just wanna be careful that you’re not getting too close to that seam. And if you do cut too close, you can always reinforce that seam by sewing over it again with another line of stitches, just giving it that extra.

Caroline: That’s a good tip. Yeah. And you also wanna use good quality thread and interfacing. We like Gutermann Sew-All for most projects, but Coats and Clark All Purpose Thread or Mettler works well, too. You wanna avoid thread that comes in big packs or with, like, a sewing kit. Those are usually lower quality and tend to break, and you can test the strength of your thread by pulling on it. It shouldn’t break apart easily.

Helen: Yes! I have had some older thread that’s been gifted to me by folks over the years. And it is fun to just pull on it to see what, kind of, state it’s in. Sometimes it just disintegrates.

Caroline: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Vintage thread can definitely lose its quality and strength over time, so you wanna make sure you test it out, um, before you use those hand me down threads. I know I have, my mom still has, like, this kit that my grandma used to use that has thread from, like, way back, like, I don’t know, like, decades and decades old thread. And I always look at it fondly, but I’m like, yeah, I think I’m gonna not use that.

Helen: It’s decorative at this point.

Caroline: Yeah, exactly. And then in regards to interfacing, you definitely don’t want to skip interfacing. I know it’s an annoying step, and it can be easy to want to just, like, skip over that step, but you wanna always interface when it’s required. And in fact, you also wanna try to use the good quality stuff if you can.

So interfacing is used to stabilise certain areas of a garment, usually areas that need extra support or structure. So you’re gonna use it in things like collars, cuffs, button bands, facings and so on. You might use it to make a fabric more stiff or to strengthen a specific area. And skipping this step is gonna mean that these areas are gonna wear down quicker or not hold their shape the way that they were intended. And skipping interfacing in a tailored garment would make it have less body and structure, so you definitely don’t wanna skip this step.

And the type of interfacing you use is gonna depend on its application. So we have a whole episode about interfacing that will link up in the show notes if you wanna learn more about it. I like to have a few different types of interfacing in my stash. I like having a lightweight, woven fusible interfacing and a medium weight one and also a knit one. We sell them all at Blackbird.

And I would say that non-woven and sew-in interfacing are less common in garment sewing, but sometimes they might be recommended. And lower quality interfacings can feel, kind of, shiny polyester or papery, and they might end up having tac issues, so they won’t stick down to your fabric as well as the higher quality ones. And this could lead to those wavy or bubbly areas in your garment after washing.

The last thing I wanna say about interfacing is just take your time when applying your fusible interfacing because if you rush this process, again, this could lead to the interfacing unsticking with wash and wear, and it can be so heartbreaking when you take the time to make, like, a beautiful button up shirt, for example, and then your collar gets all weird and bubbly and, kind of, comes apart with washing, and then it just will never look the same.

Helen: Yes, I’ve had this happen and it is because of rushing the interfacing step. I mean, for real, you have to hold that iron down for, like, 10 to 20 seconds.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: You have to do it.

Caroline: Yeah. In school, they used to make us count to 20 before we, like, move the iron.

Helen: Yeah. And it’s, like, excruciating because it’s the start of the project, you’re like, I just wanna sew. I wanna go.

Caroline: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it, and it’s easy to, like, pull your iron off and be like, oh yeah, it’s stuck down. Like, this is, it’s stuck, so it’s good.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: But it really, it might be a little bit stuck, but it needs that time to, like, fully adhere and fully heat that sticky layer so that it really sticks down to your fabric. So, yes.

Helen: And use a press cloth.

Caroline: Oh, yeah.

Helen: Twenty seconds is a long time to hold a hot iron next to your fabric, so that’s why the press cloth is there.

Caroline: Yes, totally. Okay. Thank you for the interfacing lesson, Caroline. We’ll link up that episode in the show notes, too. And our next tip here is to make sure to lock your stitches at the start of a seam. So when you start a seam on your machine, you can back stitch across the first few stitches before you continue to the rest of the seam. When you reach the end, back stitch again over the last few stitches. This keeps your stitches from unravelling. It’s like a little knot.

You can also tie off the threads if you prefer. At the beginning, sew a few stitches and then take the thread tails and knot them together. When you get to the end, you can sew off the edge, grasp the end of the fabric, pull it away from the machine, make those longer thread tails and then you can cut the threads and make a knot there as well. It’s a little bit more involved, but it does have its uses.

Back stitching’s one of those things that if you just start doing it right when you start sewing, it just becomes muscle memory and you just always do it.

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: And it just helps your seams to last longer.

Caroline: Mhm. And some machines have settings that you can put in, like the machine that we have, Helen, you can actually set it so that it backs stitches at the beginning and end of the seam. So that’s really, really helpful. And you don’t even have to think about it.

Helen: Yeah, it’s true. I love that.

Caroline: For areas of your garment that are gonna be under stress when you wear them, there are ways to reinforce them. So bar tacks are a great way to reinforce belt loops, the outer edges of patch pockets, the lower point of a fly, or the top of a side slit. A bar tack is basically a narrow, short zigzag stitched into a bar shape. Some machines will have a bar tack function, but if yours doesn’t, you can still do it with a zigzag stitch.

Helen: Yeah, and you can put extra lines of stitching into high stress seams like I was talking about earlier, like the crotch seam of pants or shorts. One way to do this is to just sew another line of stitching over the first line. That overlap is gonna make a stronger seam. You can also sew another line of stitching an eighth to a quarter of an inch into the seam allowance of the main seam. That way, if the worst happens, and the outer seam splits, you have a safety mechanism to keep you covered. I sometimes do this on my inseam pockets or the bottom of pocket bags.

Caroline: Oh, smart.

Helen: Just sew two lines because then if one gives away, you’ve got a backup.

Caroline: Yes! You can also add patches to stress areas like over the knees and butt of pants or over the elbows on a shirt or jacket. This not only makes for a hardier garment. It can look really cool too. We’re loving all the jeans and pants with big reinforcement patches we’ve seen on Instagram. And there are patterns out there for these, like the Wilderness Pants by Wardrobe by Me, but they would also be pretty simple to draft using any pants pattern.

You can use self fabric or choose a harder wearing fabric for your patches, like denim, corduroy, and leather. Those are all classic choices, and you can also refresh pants that have holes in them by adding patches. We’ll talk about that a bit more when we talk about mending.

Helen: Ooh, I do love this look. I really wanna make a pair of our jeans pattern with a bunch of patches on it.

Caroline: Yes! Nice.

Helen: Okay. So now that you’ve finished your sewing, that was easy. What can you do to actually care for your clothes? Of course, clothes need to be cleaned. So let’s talk about how to do that in a way that won’t wear them down too quickly.

Caroline: Yes. First, we wanna mention that you don’t have to wash clothes as often as you might think. Now this is different for everyone. Hello, fellow sweaty sewists! But sometimes they can be worn several times before washing. So give everything an honest smell check, and look it over for stains. If you can’t tell it was already worn, other people won’t be able to tell either.

And we have a trick that you may not have heard of. You can use a spray bottle of vodka to deodorise something that you’ve only worn once. This isn’t gonna be a good idea for something that you’ve gone running in, for example, but it will help with light odours. You just spritz this stinky part of the garment with the vodka, and then let it air dry, and this is gonna dissipate the odour. We got this tip from Maxwell Ryan of Apartment Therapy, and this is best used on fabrics that don’t take on water stains. So I would avoid it with Tencel, Lyocell, and silk.

Helen: Yes. I love this tip. I mean, good use for that vodka that I’m not drinking.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. You can minimise how dirty some of your clothing gets by protecting it from your body as well. So you can wear an easy to clean undershirt under a button up or use dress shields on your wool blazers.

Caroline: Cool. And you can also spot clean stains without washing the whole garment. We’ll talk a little bit more about stain removal in a minute, but you can totally just wash out a stain, rinse the area, and let it dry.

Helen: Yes. I find that hanging my clothes also deodorises them quite a bit. Like, when you take them off your body, they smell pretty fresh.

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: But if you hang them up on, like, a line or maybe you have some hooks in your bedroom or your closet where you can hang things the next day, a lot of that smell has just gone.

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: But if you put it in your laundry bin, then it’s going to linger.

Caroline: Yeah, totally.

Helen: Okay, stain removal. First, a little bit of general advice: the sooner, the better. If you notice a stain right away, act immediately, if you can.

Caroline: Yeah. And you wanna pretreat stains before you put the garment in the laundry. What you use to pretreat, it depends on the stain. The University of Illinois Extension has an amazing website called Stain Solutions that has specific instructions for a bunch of different stains. We’re gonna link it for you in the show notes. It’s such a good resource.

Helen: Yes. And you may want to test your stain removal pretreatment on a seam allowance or an inconspicuous area of the garment first. Then, you can make sure it’s not gonna change the colour of the fabric. You just have to apply it to the seam allowance, wait a few minutes, and check that the colour hasn’t changed.

Caroline: Yeah, and never mix stain removal products. Some chemicals can create dangerous fumes when mixed together, like ammonia or chlorine.

Helen: When you’re doing your blotting and pre-treatment, use a paper towel or clean white cloth or sponge. Colored cloths and sponges can leave dye behind, and then you’re gonna have a whole new problem. So maybe try and keep some clean cloths or stain removal sponges in your cleaning cabinet for this purpose only.

Caroline: Yeah.Ooh. And this one is a good tip that I actually didn’t know. Generally, you wanna use cool water on stains because hot water can set protein stains, like milk, eggs, or blood.

Helen: Yes. Cold water. Almost always, I think. And finally, wash heavily stained garments separately from the rest of the laundry, so you’re not transferring any of that stain onto your other clothes.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. Here are the steps to remove a stain. First, you wanna blot it with paper towel. Don’t rub it. That usually just spreads the stain out and you can risk damaging the fabric.

Helen: Secondly, you wanna scrape off any solids. The dull side of a butter knife is really good for this. Sometimes solids are easier to remove when they’ve dried. Mud is a good example. You can brush it off when it’s dry, but not when it’s wet.

Caroline: Do your pre-treating. Once again, avoid rubbing unless it’s a sturdy cotton fabric.

Helen: And then, next you can get to washing. And if the stain still isn’t gone after the washing, don’t put it in the dryer yet. That high heat is gonna set the stain and make it more difficult to remove. In the same vein, never iron over a stain. Hey, that rhymed. I’m, like, a cross between Martha Stewart and Dr. Seuss.

Caroline: Yeah. And some stains need more than one treatment, so don’t give up. This is your precious me-made. Try again and see how it goes.

Helen: Okay. Let’s move on to washing. Once again, the best plan is to follow the care instructions for your fabric. We cannot state this enough. That’s why Caroline puts those labels on your fabric orders for you.

Caroline: Yes, I personally label all of the fabric orders, of course. No, it is so important. And with that said, most garments will be fine with a gentle machine wash on cold, but, you know, do as I say, not as I do.

Helen: You also wanna do what Caroline does and pair your colours together. Generally, you can separate them into whites, lights, brights, and darks. You can think about separating reds, too, since it only takes a little bit of red dye to make all the other clothes look a little pink. You can combine some of those into groups, darks and brights can usually be washed together. And the same with whites and lights.

Caroline: Yeah, and some clothes can benefit from being washed in a mesh bag, also known as a lingerie bag. Bras and other clothing with long straps or drawstrings can get twisted around and distorted in the wash. Hooks and Velcro closures can snag on other garments. If you put these in bags, you’ll protect them as well as the other clothes in the load.

Oof, Helen, this has happened to me before and it’s so heartbreaking. Like, a skinny strap from a garment gets tangled up and then literally just, like, rips off…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: …in the wash or starts to fray. So you can really avoid these, this heartbreak by using those mesh bags. Um, I started doing this recently, and it’s been, kind of, a lifesaver. I’ve had less heartbreak in my washing.

Helen: Less laundry mishaps. I know it is, like, you get that terrified feeling when you open the dryer and you see that, like, your tiny strap from your jumpsuit’s, like, wrapped around your jeans, like, 18 times.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: You’re like, how does this even happen? You’re unravelling it like, please don’t be ripped. Please don’t be ripped.

Caroline: Yeah. Yes.

Helen: Well, in the same vein to protect things you wanna do up the zippers, hook up those hooks and eyes, and button up buttons before you throw things in the wash to make sure that they go through as safely as possible.

Caroline: Yeah. And most of us are using more detergent than we need, so check out your detergent bottle. It’s gonna say how much to use for each size load. Believe the label. You probably don’t need to use as much as you’re using.

Helen: They’re tricky, too. It’ll be, like, fill to the line, and you look in the cap, and the line’s, like, down near the bottom of the cap.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Right?

Caroline: Why is it such a big cap?

Helen: You end up filling it all the way. They want you to use more.

Caroline: Yeah, of course, they do. Those tricksters.

Helen: Big Laundry. Alright. So that is machine washing. Let’s move on to hand washing. You’re gonna need a few things to hand wash properly: a gentle detergent, a large sink, bucket, or bathtub and white or neutral colored towels.

Caroline: Yeah. So here’s how to do it. Fill your sink with cool water. Turn your clothes inside out. Like machine washing, you wanna wash like colours together. Read your detergent’s bottle and add as much as they recommend. Submerge your clothes and swish them around a bit. Let them sit submerged for 15 to 30 minutes, and then you drain the water and run cool water over your garments until the runoff is no longer soapy.

Press the garments between your hands or against the side of the empty sink to squeeze out most of the water. Don’t ring them; that could really pull them out of shape. And then you can either lay them out to dry now, or you can roll them between clean towels and press on them to get out more of the water. And then either lay them flat to dry, reshaping them as you do so, or hang them.

Helen: Oh, you make it sound so easy.

Caroline: Yeah, I know. Just like that. Just handwash your clothes.

Helen: I always get water all over me when I try to do this. My bathtub is, like, an awkward shape and size.

Okay. Some fabrics are gonna call for dry cleaning. Your care instructions will tell you if you need to do this. It’s pretty rare. It’s often found on wools and silks. And if this is the case, you can either take them to a reputable dry cleaners, or you can try cleaning them at home. There are at home dry cleaning kits you can use in your dryer, like Dryel. We’ve also found a video by Blueprint DIY on YouTube where she shares her recipe for home dry cleaning solution that you can use just like Dryel.

Most fabrics labelled dry clean can be hand washed as well. It’s only when it says dry clean only that it’s more of a risk because they’re basically saying, do not get this fabric wet.

Caroline: Mhm. Okay. Let’s talk drying your clothes. Once again, look at your care instructions. I know we’re like a broken record, but it is really important. And keep in mind that heat breaks down fibres faster, and it can also wear out and distort elastic. So the best plan is to avoid a hot dryer altogether. I know my dryer has, like, an air fluff setting versus a drying setting. And often that’s enough, especially for a small load. You don’t necessarily need to use a ton of heat in your dryer.

Helen: Tumble drying in your dryer is the fastest option. Just make sure to dry on a low heat and keep most of your delicate items out of the dryer altogether. Dryer balls are also pretty popular right now, but they might not honestly be worth it. In Popular Mechanics, they tested the plastic kind with those soft spikes and found that they did not actually make a difference in drying time or softness of the clothing, and they do not help with the static either. Also, hard dryer balls may break down the fibres even faster. Wool dryer balls with essential oil could give your clothes a nice scent though.

Caroline: Yeah, I have some wool dryer balls, and I can’t tell you whether they work or not. I use them, but I can’t really tell the difference. I’ve definitely gone through phases where I haven’t put anything in, and it has been, kind of, the same.

Helen: There’s also dryer sheets. Do you ever use those?

Caroline: I used to, and then I read some articles about, like, all the chemicals in the dryer sheets and stopped using them. Don’t quote me on that. I don’t know a lot about it, but I just thought, hey, it’s one less thing I need to buy. So I switched to those, um, like, wool dryer balls, but I do think that dryer sheets are probably the most effective in softening clothing. Um, they release a lubricant onto fibres that makes them feel softer and reduces static clinging. So if you often feel like your clothes aren’t soft enough or that they’re too staticy, dryer sheets can help, but I think you’ll be fine without them.

Helen: I mean, I’ve never used one in my life and here I am.

Caroline: You’ve never used a dryer sheet?

Helen: No.

Caroline: My mum, like, always uses dryer sheets. So maybe that’s why I, like, got into the habit of doing it.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: But I like not having to buy them, so… Yeah.

Helen: Okay. There’s also line drying. And if you’ve never heard of this, this is when you hang your clothes. No, I’m just kidding. This is a time-tested way to dry clothing. You can use an outside line with clothespins, but if you don’t have the space, you can still line dry. There are foldable drying racks that you can hang clothes over. You can put garments on hangers and hang them on your shower rod. The best places to hang will allow air to circulate all around the garment.

Be careful when line drying knits and garments with skinny straps because those can get stretched out by the weight of the garment. For strappy clothing and lightweight knits, you can drape the garment over the line or centre of the hanger instead of hanging it by the shoulders. But even then sometimes you get some misshaping, so flat lay is probably the best way to go there.

Caroline: And drying flat is best for knits and loosely woven garments that could get misshapen by hanging. So to do this, you just lay them on a towel or on a mesh drying rack, reshape them so that they look like they should, and then let them sit until dry. There are a couple of kinds of mesh drying racks, the stacking kind that you can keep out permanently and the kind that you can hang from a shower curtain rod and collapse when you’re not using. We’ll link examples of both in the show notes. If you’re laying your garment on a towel, you can turn them over when they’re halfway dry so that the other side can dry faster.

Helen: Smart. Okay. Our clothes have been made. They have been washed. They are ready to go into our beloved closets. Let’s talk about storing all of these clean clothes. Sunlight can really fade clothing and fabric for that matter. So it is best stored in a closed closet, chest of drawers or armoire or at least in a room where the sun is not coming right in the window.

Caroline: Mhm. One of the reasons people hang up clothes is to prevent wrinkling. A super stuffed closet isn’t gonna work that way though. Ideally, there should be enough space around each garment for it to hang free, not super far apart, but not squished. So if your closet is stuffed, check to see if you can reduce the number of garments in there, maybe some of them would be fine in drawers or maybe you could expand to another closet or armoire.

Helen: I need to do this. I had to laugh when I was reading the prep that Lisa did for this because my closet is so stuffed and I’m like…

Caroline: Yeah, perpetually stuffed closet.

Helen: Wait, it’s not working.

The hangers you use can also make a big difference. Velvet or felt hangers are nice for keeping clothes from slipping off. For heavyweight items, you can use a sturdy plastic or wood hanger. You can get pants hangers with those non-slip clips, or you can fold them in half and drape them over one of those velvet hangers.

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: This is an opportunity to really like customize your closet too, which is fun.

Caroline: Yeah, and velvet hangers tend to take up less space, too. So if you have a smaller closet, that might be the way you wanna go versus, um, like a wood hanger.

Helen: Mhm.

Caroline: But I’ve actually never used a velvet hanger. I love the idea that they keep clothes from slipping off cause that is so annoying.

Helen: Yeah, I don’t buy hangers that don’t have, like, at least a little, like, divot in the ends…

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: …to keep the straps from falling off.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: The KonMari method is also a super popular way to store clothes. It’s a folding method that’s great for clothing in drawers because you can see everything you have from above instead of looking underneath the stacks. You can also pull things out without messing everything else up. We’re gonna link a video to this method in the show notes. You can check out if you like the sound of it. It, kind of, makes it look like a little bookshelf inside your drawers.

Caroline: Mhm. Do you fold your clothes this way in drawers?

Helen: No.

Caroline: No? I do.

Helen: Really?

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Oh, my gosh.

Caroline: Ever since I did, like, I KonMari’d my life, like, five years ago or something, I’ve been folding like that. I will say my drawers still gets messy. Like, I still move things around when I pull out a t-shirt, and once in a while, I just need to like, regroup, pull everything out, refold it, and put it back in. And I know it’s not for everyone, but I do find it helpful to see what I have.

Helen: Yeah. I do need to do this. Mine, kind of, gets away from me sometimes. And right now it’s in a state, so I need to go through and refold. But when I do it, I do the KonMari method, like, you know, twice a year and then the rest of the time, I’m just throwing stuff in there.

Caroline: Yeah, Shea, definitely, I had to, like, give up the battle of trying to get him to fold the stuff in his drawers. And it, like, gives me anxiety every time I open his drawer cause it’s literally just, everything is just, like, shoved in there. There’s no folding; it’s just a mess of clothes, but you know what? Works for him.

Helen: Why are you opening his drawers, Caroline?

Caroline: That’s a good point. Cause half the time they’re half open.

Helen: Oh, I see. That’s fair.

Caroline: Let’s not get into it. Um, you also definitely wanna make sure not to fold and put away anything damp because mildew is not a fun smell, and it’s also hard to get rid of, so make sure your clothes are dry before you put them away.

And you can store off season clothing. So even just a portion of your makes can be rotated out from season to season. Make sure your clothes are clean and dry before you store them.
You do this right, Helen?

Helen: Yes, I do. I have, like, a large collection of summer printed dresses and things that don’t get worn through the winter, so I swap them out for my flannel shirts and some more of my denim pieces that I just don’t wear in the summer, and it’s perfect.

Caroline: Is it really exciting to, like, pull out the next season’s clothes at, like…? I, I just could imagine it being, like, really fun.

Helen: Oh, it’s so fun!

Caroline: Oh, what’s in here? I forget what I own.

Helen: I love it. And it just makes your closet a little bit more manageable, too. If you have a lot of clothes, like I do, it can be a bit overwhelming. So it’s nice to only have pieces available to you that you’re actually gonna wear during that season.

Caroline: Mhm. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And the best place to store your clothes is cool, dark, and dry. And for storage containers, opaque, plastic bins are a good choice to keep out the sunlight, moisture, and bugs. If you’re storing your clothes in the garage, avoid cardboard boxes since they can attract bugs and let in moisture. And if you’re storing your clothes inside your place, fabric or canvas bins are gonna work fine.

And don’t forget to label your bins, so you know what’s inside them. You can make a list of what’s in each box as you pack it, and then tape it to the outside. To make figuring out where everything is even easier, store similar things together. And finally, you could also use vacuum bags to suck out the air and store your clothing in less space. Just keep in mind that these should be kept in a dark place so light doesn’t get in and change the colour.

Helen: Well, this is next level I’ve been thinking about getting a vacuum sealer.

Caroline: Yes. I have had one in the past, and I love it. I, it was actually just the bags that I bought on Amazon. And then you use, like, your vacuum basically to just, like…

Helen: Oh, cool.

Caroline: …pull the air out. Um, and they work really well, especially if you’re moving, and you need to just, like, get everything into less boxes.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Okay. Your me-mades are probably gonna need some mending or altering at some point. Before you throw something away, think about whether it can be mended or repurposed, and well, almost everything can. Now a lot of mending is pretty straightforward repair, like a seam came apart, so you need to resell it, or a button fell off, so you need to replace it. There are other kinds of mending that aren’t so straightforward. And we have a whole episode about mending that we’re gonna link in the show notes, so that’s a good starting point. There’s also a bunch of resources linked there that can help you to learn different mending techniques.

Caroline: Yeah. And there are two main types of mending: invisible and visible. The goal of invisible mending is to repair a garment in a way that is the least noticeable possible. There are a bunch of cool traditional ways to do this. If you still have a few scraps of your garment fabric, those are really useful for patching.

Helen: Yes. And the goal of visible mending is to draw attention to or celebrate the mending. People use colourful embroidery floss to embroider designs over small holes, use bright roving to needle felt over moth-eaten wools, or attach contrasting pieces.

Caroline: Yes. And sometimes you need to replace a part of your garment like zippers or buttons. If you lose one button, but you don’t have a matching replacement, you can replace all the buttons with new ones. It’s worth it to keep wearing your shirt.

Helen: And if you have something you think can’t be repaired, look into it a bit more. Chances are there is a method for fixing it and a tutorial or two out there to help you out. Maybe you just have to get really creative and just add more fabric to it. But that can be such a fun project, too, and really stretch to those creative muscles.

Caroline: Mhm. Okay. We’re almost done, but there’s one more thing we wanna say before we go. And that is that fabrics change over time, especially natural fibre fabrics.

Helen: We have both totally learned to love the way that linen fades around seams or how cotton softens more and more after each wash and wear. But even if you take care of your clothing super well, it does have a finite lifespan.

Caroline: Yeah. And as you wear and rewear, the garments you’ve made, they will change. They’ll get softer and a bit more faded. Maybe they’ll gain a patch or a new zipper. It’s all part of the story of your me-mades.

Helen: Yes! I love this idea of a story of your me-mades. And even when you’ve worn it to dust, you can still keep it if you want for sentimental purposes. I love the idea of hanging onto a few of your early me-made pie-, pieces, so you can look back at them in years to come or share them with your family members later on. I think that’s really special and something to consider, especially all of that work you put into making it and also just wearing it all the time.

Caroline: Yeah, totally. I definitely wish I had done this with some of my earlier makes, but you know what? That’s okay.

Helen: That’s okay, too. There’s plenty more in the future.

Caroline: Totally.

Helen: That’s it for today’s episode of Love To Sew. You can find me Helen at HelensClosetPatterns.com and Caroline at BlackbirdFabrics.com. We’re recording in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Caroline: Go to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at hello@LoveToSewPodcast.com.

Helen: If you love Love To Sew and want more, you can sign up for our Patreon. For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pics. For $10 a month, you get all that plus a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics. Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew for more info.

Caroline: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you all for listening. We’ll see you next week.

Helen: Buh-bye.

Caroline: Bye.

 

Related Episodes