As our clothes are handmade and use the finest organic cottons, the delicate nature of handsmocking often leaves people baffled when it comes to the time of washing. Are we best to go to a dry cleaners, hand wash it or put it in the machine and hope for the best? If you are like me, you will try to get as much wear as possible out your clothes before washing them, on the off chance that you destroy them in the washing machine. Not to mention it is actually better for clothes and the environment if they are washed less. Your choice of washing method will depend on the type of material and colours of your item.
Here at Little Lola’s we suggest that your clothing is hand washed, however, they can be dry cleaned if you don’t feel confident enough to hand wash them.
How to Hand Wash your Little Lola’s
Separate the Colours
First you have to start by separating the colours, as you would for a washing machine. If you have a few items try to divide them into lights and darks or similar colours. I usually always wash white items with only white items, even if there’s a baby blue or baby pink in there I prefer to keep them apart. This is to give myself the best possible chance of keeping my white items crisp and snow white.
Prepare the Water
Make sure your sink or basin is clean first, we don’t want to wash the items if the water can be dirtied. You don’t need to fill the sink full, only enough water to fully cover the item, the less water we waste the better! Let’s be water conscious! Your water should be lukewarm, and comfortable for your hands to be in. Now, for your detergent, which should be mild, and you will only need about a teaspoon. Generally we use much more than we actually need. Swirl the detergent around in the water until it is fully dissolved, this usually only takes a couple of seconds, do the same if you use liquid detergent.
Submerge Your Item
Now you have to wash your item, be brave you won’t destroy it. Submerge the item fully in the water and allow it to soak in for a few seconds. Next you have to swirl it around in the water, but never twist it or over rub it as this will damage the material. The detergent is doing its job. You can rinse your item with cool water, first emptying the sink and giving it a quick clean. Rinsing the item with cool water will remove any residue from the detergent and this is better for babies’ skin, the less chemicals the better! Rinse as many times as required, when the smell of detergent is almost gone you know you are finished with the washing process.
Time to Dry
The final part of the process is drying the item. At this point you will need a fresh clean bath towel. After removing your item from the water you can place it on the towel and pat it to remove excess water. Gently pushing (patting) water out the item will gradually remove the water, but means you may need to have a few spare towels incase. Never twist or fold the item as this can cause damage.
If you need to dry the item inside, lay it flat on a fresh towel over a clothes horse and near a radiator, we don’t suggest placing it on the radiator directly. If you are able to hang the item outside in the fresh air to dry then place it over the washing line at the middle of the item, (usually the waist or just below where the waist would be) this will save you from the water weight misshaping the item.
Do you have any Old Wives Tales for us?
Usually our grandmas have a few tricks up their sleeves, so if our hand wash steps need improving and you think that you think could help, please contact us and share your old wives tale. We hope we have given you the confidence to hand wash your Little Lola’s, after all our easy hand wash steps have come directly from our grandmas themselves.