Care · 4 min read
How to wash it so it still looks good next year
Decoration rarely fails on its own — it fails in the dryer. What actually shortens the life of a print or a stitch, and the four habits that prevent almost all of it.
A properly cured transfer and a properly stitched design both outlast the garment they are on. When decoration fails early it is almost always heat, friction or bleach — and all three are avoidable without treating the shirt as precious.
Inside out
The single most effective habit
Cold
Wash temperature
Low
Dryer heat, or hang it
The four rules
- Turn it inside out before washing. The decoration then rubs against the inside of the garment rather than against zips, buttons and everything else in the drum.
- Wash cold. Heat is what softens a transfer adhesive and what shrinks fabric around stitching, which is where puckering comes from.
- Skip the fabric softener. It coats fibres, and on a printed transfer that coating is what edges start lifting from.
- Dry low, or hang it. The dryer does more damage than the wash, every time.
Never do these
- Bleach. It attacks the decoration and the garment color around it.
- Iron directly onto a print. If it needs pressing, turn it inside out and press the back of the design, or use a cloth.
- Dry clean embroidery on a delicate garment without asking — solvents and some threads disagree.
If something does go wrong
A transfer edge lifting within the first few washes is a curing problem, not a care problem, and that is on us — tell us and we will replace it. Cracking across the whole design after two years of hot washes is wear, and it is what the rules above are for.
Next step
Let’s outfit your team.
Tell us about your team, the garments you have in mind and your target date. Need help choosing? Include that in your request.
Or email DigitalxBoutique@gmail.com