10 Common Apparel Wash Care Instructions and Their Meaning

When you buy a new apparel item, you might have observed that a wash care instruction in the clothing items. Why so? 

After wearing the clothes, a couple of times, we need to clean the clothes at home or using a laundry service. 

The behaviors of different fiber and fabric constructions behave differently in the wet process (washing). The instruction printed on the labels are specific to the materials and garments. 

So, the same wash care instructions cannot be used for all garments and clothing items. This wash care instructions are placed in the clothing item for safeguarding the brand from any complaints against the garment quality if it damaged after washing. High end and delicate garments should be handled carefully. Experts suggest dry washing for some kind of clothes. 

In this post, I will share the common wash care instructions to be followed for apparels irrespective of material. Later, I will explain the meaning of each wash instruction.

1. Don't wring dry / Don't tumble dry.
2. Wash inside out.
3. Dry inside out in shade /Flat dry in shade
4. Don't iron trims and prints.
5. Don't bleach.
6. Wash different colors separately / Machine wash with similar colors.
7. Don't rub or wring
8. Wash your clothes at the correct or lower temperature.
9. Flat dry only for knits items (T-shirts/Sweat shirts/Sweaters)
10. Pilling is a natural process of woolen garments. 

Read the wash care instructions carefully and follow the instruction.  

1. Don't wring dry / Don't tumble dry

Wring dry means squeezing the clothe until all water is gone. As you twist the clothes for squeezing water out, yarns and the stiches may break in this process. It may cause wrinkles in the garment. 

Tumble dry means, drying the washed clothes by spinning in a dryer it with hot air.  

If you wash your clothes by hand and you don't have washing machine at home, you don't need to worry about the tumble dry.

2. Wash inside out

This means turn garment inside out before washing. This simple practice used while washing clothes may increase the live of the garment and the original color of the clothes will sustain more. 

While washing multiple garments in a washing machine, they rub each other and that cause fading of colors. If there is a print design on the garment, the printed design (color depth) may be washed out slowly by continuous rubbing in multiple washes.

 3. Dry inside out in shade

Here two instructions are there First is dry your clothes inside out. Like you are suggested for washing inside out. Second one is dry your clothes in shade instead of drying them direct sun light.

The surface color of the clothes faded away if you regularly dry your clothes under direct sun light. So, first avoid drying clothes under direct sun light. If you need to dry it under sunlight, then turn garment inside out and dry. This will have less impact on your clothes.

 

4. Don't iron trims and prints

Some trims and print design (print material) are sensitive to heat. Iron (hot press) may damage the print artwork. The iron may burn the trims. 

5. Don't bleach

Who bleaches their clothes? The bleaching process is used to whiten the fabric.  

At home, no body think of bleaching their clothes to clean the dirt. If you bleach it, be informed that the color of the garment and print designs on the clothes (if any) will be damaged. 

6. Wash different colors separately 

This instruction must be followed either washing is done by hand (dipping clothes in a bucket with soap and water) or in a washing machine. 

In washing, garment color may come out from the dark colored garment and mainly newly purchased garments. That color may create stains and patches to another garment of light color or white garments. This issues commonly found in cotton clothes if you dip and wash which garment and a dark colored garment together.

Who knows which garments are not fast to washing?  So, wash different colors separately. 

End notes:

I have seen some clothing retailers who used to print generic wash care instructions in the back side of the bill. This is a good idea to avoid customer complaints.