Sweaters are some of my favorite pieces, and I don’t mind investing in them because I know that they last me many years. Most of the sweaters I have in my wardrobe, I’ve owned for several years. Some have been in my closet for 6 years now. Beyond just making the cost per wear lower, taking good care of your sweaters is eco-friendly and just feels like such a win when you get to continue wearing a piece you love. Let’s talk about how I take care of my pieces and make them last forever.
Start with high quality materials
It’s easiest to keep sweaters in great condition when you start with a high quality material- cotton, different wool blends, etc. Synthetic materials pill more easily and start to look worn out sooner in my experience. My rule is that I would never spend over $30 on a synthetic material sweater (or top/dress/etc). I also find that these types of materials lose their shape and don’t wash very well, which is why they often require dry-cleaning. I’m wary of purchasing anything that requires dry-cleaning- it’s an unnecessary expense and inconvenient. 100% cotton can pretty much always be washed, and wool blends can also be washed by hand instead of dry cleaned.
Undershirts will save you
You can wash your sweaters fewer times per season if you prevent them from getting sweaty/dirty in the first place. Any short sleeved under shirt will protect a sweater from getting dirty- that’s why men’s short sleeve undershirts make so much more sense than women’s sleeveless tank top undershirts which allow sweat to touch the blouse or sweater.
Thompson Tees undershirts have a padded underarm to absorb ALL of your sweat and you will never have pit stains again if you wear them! I love them and they are the best deal for a sweat-absorbing undershirt on the market, trust me. At about $30, I know this might sounds expensive for an undershirt, BUT if you are able to preserve a couple sweaters, it’s totally worth it. I like the slim fit ones best- they’re not too thick of a material, so they won’t add bulk or make you too warm. You can wear a sweater 10+ times if you wear this type of undershirt because as long as you don’t spill anything on the sweater, it’s essentially not getting dirty at all and it isn’t touching your body.
Unfortunately, hand washing helps
No one wants to hear this, but..hand washing your sweaters instead of throwing them in the washing machine is a game changer for anything cashmere, wool, silk, or delicate. It sounds tedious, but all you really need is a sink/bathtub/shower and a plastic tub like this one and maybe a place to hang the sweaters to dry after. A drying rack is ideal but you could hang them over any door or shower rod too. It takes less than 5 minutes to hand wash each sweater, and it’s kinda relaxing too IMO.
If you’re feeling lazy to hand wash your sweaters, just think of it as an alternative to dry cleaning. It’s much cheaper, and it wouldn’t take you much longer than dropping off and picking up your clothes from the cleaners. One thing I’ll mention is to not be overly zealous when wringing out the sweaters- you don’t want to damage the shape!
Detergent Is Important
This is one thing I haven’t paid much attention to in the past, but I’m going to do a better job going forward. I used to think that I was already being extra by hand washing, but I have heard that using a detergent specifically for delicates is important for preserving the material and color.
I never used to even use detergent specifically for colors or brights either, but that’s something I will start doing with my next load of laundry. I also used to think that if something had been washed many times before, then the color would no longer bleed and that separating laundry by darks and lights was less important. My mom told me last week that that’s not true, and that I really should be separating my laundry loads by color. So…basically I’ve been doing this whole thing wrong for all my laundry that I put in the washing machine, but don’t make the same mistakes I’m making!
Pill Combs
I have shared this so many times and I feel like I’m beating a dead horse, but a good pill comb can really re-vamp any old jackets and sweaters. This one is my all time favorite. I’ve used plenty of other ones too, but I feel that this one takes the cake. The electric combs don’t get as close to the fabric since there’s the cover separating the spinning blades from the fabric, so I find that they’re less effective. The only thing I’ll say is to be careful not to overdo it. It feels so satisfying to remove all the bobbles and fuzz, but you don’t want to shave away at the fabric unnecessarily. Also, this is probably fairly obvious, but you can’t use a pill comb on fabric that has textural patterns, like a fisherman’s sweater.
Patch things up!
Be comfortable sewing up tiny holes (which is fairly common with cashmere after 1-2 years, unfortunately). There are plenty of YouTube videos on this topic, and it takes less than 5 minutes to patch up a tiny hole. All you need is a needle and thread that’s the color of your sweater. I’ve never tried adding on cute patches or embellishments during a repair, but I feel like that could add some character if done right. There are so many sweaters and blazers that have elbow patches on the market that I feel like a strategically placed & shaped patch wouldn’t raise any eyebrows. That said, I think this would only make sense if you somehow ended up with a large hold in one of your sweaters, not for a tiny moth hole.
If you guys have any questions or additional tips, please share them below- I love hearing from you all. Thank you for reading 🙂
