Denim fabric is used in various ways, but you can commonly see it manufactured for clothes– jeans and jackets in particular. It’s cool to wear one, which makes it difficult to choose the best denim jacket. Once you have one, it becomes your favorite wear to pair with that luxury watch you have.
Since it is your favorite, you have to avoid severe laundry disasters and serious headaches. Every denim jacket fan knows that these most-worn parts in your wardrobe need special attention. Here are some tricks and laundry hacks for cleaning denim jackets at home:
- Use natural detergents: Natural detergents are better than the tough additives in commercial detergents. Using those laundry detergents with harsh additives will accelerate the color fading, breaking the fabric’s stiffness and making it lose its shape.
- Get rid of stains immediately. Stains like the ones you get from playing with your pup or from the food you were eating when cycling have to be pre-treated before your denim jacket is washed. You have to carefully dab or remove the stain with a clean cloth and dishwashing soap to remove the stains efficiently.
- Flip your denim jacket inside-out: Flipping your denim jacket allows you to protect its color from bleeding or fading. Moreover, it will enable the machine to wash the inner portion of your jacket carefully.
- Hang your jacket: Other than color fading. It’s best to hang your jacket when drying. Dryers may fade the color of your jacket. Over time, the fabric weave quality will. Thus, it’s best to air dry them.
- Don’t use warm water in washing your denim jacket: Warm water will shrink and fade the denim fabric.
- Clean your jacket with a lint roller: You can rapidly and effortlessly clean a denim jacket with a lint roller as frequently as you like to prevent repeated excessive washes. The lint roller can remove some particles from your denim jacket.
Hand Wash or Machine Wash?
Either, you can wash your denim jacket by hand or machine. If you decide to hand wash your denim jacket, let your jacket soak in cold water for at least an hour before washing it. As the hour passes by, you can gently rub the denim jacket with your hands. It’s best not to wring your denim jacket. Instead, hang, and air dries it.
You can also machine wash your denim jacket. If you do not have a washer and dryer at home, the best option is to have it washed by laundry experts near you.
Denim jackets are not that difficult to maintain if you know the basic practices of washing them. It’s a sensitive type of fabric. You do not have to clean your denim jacket every after use, and you can clean them with a lint roller and put them aside for the next use.
Frequently washing them will make their color fade quickly. Thus, you need to know the effective way of taking care of your denim jacket. However, if your option is to have your denim jacket washed by laundry experts at a laundromat, all you need to do is choose a reliable laundromat especially when you’re traveling or backpacking.
How Often Should You Wash Your Denim Jacket?
Most of our clothes need a good wash after we use them while others need a little less. However, people cannot seem to agree on how often pieces of denim should be washed. If you ask serious denim enthusiasts, they will tell you almost never to wash your denim wears– but, that’s a bit of questionable advice, right?
Well, let’s hear some of the experts’ advice.
“Denim has thicker material than regular clothes. That’s why you can wear it more between washes or until it starts giving off an unwanted odor. You can freshen them with a fabric freshener to remove odors and add a clean laundry scent.”
“The less you wash your denim, you are protecting its fabric from wearing off. The wash cycle breaks down the fabric and washing them with hot water or drying them will cause more damage than good. Especially those with elastane or stretchable fabric.”
Other than these pieces of advice, you should also know that the frequency you will wash your denim depends on the type you are cleaning. Raw and sanforized denim should only be for dry cleaning. If you own these types of denim, you should hand them over to dry cleaning experts.
Meanwhile, if you have acid-wash or stonewash denim, it is best to wash them with cold water and air dry them after five wears. However, it is different for blended denim wears, this type of denim is mixed with polycotton fibers, Lycra, or spandex. It’s best to wash them when they lose shape or expand.
Bottom Line
Denim wear is almost everyone’s favorite– they want to rock that style. However, having them in your wardrobe requires a lot of care and attention. There are several considerations you need to put in mind before collecting denim outfits, and it’s between washing them and not washing them.
Washing them has a lot of considerations. If you wash them, you have to wear them until there’s a stain or it has an unwanted odor already. You do not have to wash them frequently because they will wear quickly. Meanwhile, if it’s time to wash, you have to carefully do it to ensure you won’t damage the fabrics. It’s better to hand them over to laundry experts if you have the budget.
While you won’t wash your denim wear, you have to make them feel and smell fresh with fabric conditioners. That’s how you do it. Afraid of huddled bacteria especially in this pandemic? There are two solutions for that– it’s either you won’t rock that denim look yet and find another style to wear, or have several denim outfits in your closet and not worry about washing them more often than recommended.