I don't know what my wool coat is made of - if it's 100% wool or a blend. I can't read any label at this point, but it's definitely mostly wool. I turned it inside out and buttoned it. I don't have any net bag for washing it, so I carefully folded it and put it inside a 'European' square pillowcase and then in another pillowcase (with the fasteners on opposite sides when I buttoned it up). I put it in my front-loading Bosch Series 2 washing machine and put it on the 'wool' cycle, which barely agitated it - basically got it wet and soaked it (I used a little bit of ordinary washing liquid), turning it over a few times to keep it wet (the machine just agitated a turn or two and flopped the bundle over) during probably a 20-25 minute cycle. Then it rinsed it. I think it was spinning at 800 revolutions per minute. When I took it out, it was clean, nice-smelling, definitely not as 'tacky' feeling as it was dirty. It feels a little 'loftier' but not 'fluffy.' I mean the dirt seems to have washed out from between the fibers, so it doesn't have a kind of slick, matted feeling like it had before I washed it. I took it out of the washing machine probably 7-8 hours ago and laid it out on the drying rack. It's already dry enough to wear. It smells nice - just a faint whiff of what the washing liquid smells like. No felting, no problems with the lining bunching. It's not even noticeably wrinkled. In fact, the wrinkles in the arms - which were always there after dry cleaning - smoothed out with this method. It looks more 'ironed' than it used to look after dry cleaning and steam ironing by the professionals. I cannot afford dry-cleaning now. I can't afford a special laundry detergent that's allegedly formulated for wool (and doubt it's any different from the normal stuff, to be honest) and I can't afford a special mesh bag. I learned the method watching a guy turn a men's suit inside out, put it in a mesh bag and wash it in the machine. I decided to try it even though if it went wrong I'd be without a winter coat in Central Europe in December, and without money to buy a new one. It WORKS! And it only took 40 minutes in the machine. I saved time and a LOT of money and am happy as can be with the result.
Just a side note, you should NEVER pour detergent directly onto fabric/clothes because it can stain or damage the cloth before its' diluted into the water.
I'm much wiser in the ways of caring for wool now than when I did this video, but I'm actually glad I *did* pour it onto the coat, purely because I like to test 'do's' and 'don't's' for myself. Thanks for leaving a comment!! :)
***** If you know better now, can you tell people that in the description so that they can totally avoid staining their coats? (I know you say at your own risk--but you know, beginners don't know not to put soap directly on clothes ever, even when hand washing). Thank you for such a helpful video!! :)
Cathie- I purchased a "sweater shaver" from Fred Meyer 10 years ago for around $10 and it still works GREAT at removing all of the pilling that shows up on my wool coat. After a few minutes of using the sweater shaver my winter coats look brand new again.
Great vid. I've been doing this for years, with wool mix items its easier but pure new wool is a bit trickier, still doable. I sell vintage clothing and like to clean them if possible. I will always use a cold/wool cycle, minimal spinning and mild or little detergent.
+Normac rillem Hi i would say 50% would shrink a little yes as its more wool content. If you are talking about a mans wool suit cut or blazer jacket to be honest i wouldn't put that in the washer it'd be hell to iron unless you have a pro steamer. Even if it doesn't shrink it can lose shape which could be difficult to regain once dry.
Hi I just washed my old but like new Liz Claiborne wool coat 🧥 it was infested by little moths it came out great although there are tiny circles that had be eaten ugh 😑 but I tumble dried the coat on air for 40 minutes with my clean crocs so it would move more freely I’m so happy 😀
Realy good and helpful, thank you. I wash my wool/polly coat often but on a cold wash with minimum powder and the hang to drain and dry, I never risk the tumble. Thanks
Hi Miss cathie I'm happy we could wash at home, I just want to note that you can buy a lint ball machine. Machine can be found in most target rite aid stores like nthat
I used cold water and the same laundry liquid detergent I use for all my clothes. I used only a small amount because I wasn't sure how much the wool cycle would rinse the coat. It came out fine, clean, lightly smelling of washing detergent (though it's still damp so I don't expect that smell to last and I have to really put my nose against it to smell it). My black coat looks blacker and feels 'loftier' than before washing it, and it came out with fewer creases than when it's dry-cleaned. After dry-cleaning, there were always the creases that come in the sleeves from bending your arms, even after they steamed and 'ironed' the coat. With this method, the coat looks more like new. Definitely I'm converted from dry-cleaning my coats!
thanks I will try to wash my wool coat too. my mom take her fur coat to drycleaning and it did shrink and it was bad job for dry cleaning shop so ...better to do my self LOL
Same thing happened To me. They shrunk it at the cleaners & yelled in my face when I asked them what happened & if anything could be done to undo the shrinkage. Never again!!!
Dry cleaners charge you a fortune for possibly ruining your clothes with no guarantee if they're damaged. Plus they put your clothes in with tons of other clothes, yuk! I have a beautiful wool sweater coat I've been wanting to clean so I'm going to try this. I was afraid it would felt up on me. Thank you!
busan cun Ideally, yes. But when you have neither, and you're still in experimental mode, you make do with what you have. It turned out well. Thanks for the comment!
I used a small amount of ordinary laundry liquid like I use for everything. Worked fine. I wonder if those 'formulated for wool' detergents are any different in terms of ingredients. Some day maybe I'll read the labels and find out...
Fabric softener is bad for all of our clothes. For as long as I can remember I use an ungodly amount of fabric softener and all the little additives to make everything smell good. So to learn that fabric softener is horrible for your clothes broke little my heart lol. The first time you ever use fabric softener on your towels they lose a considerable amount of fluffiness, if not all of it. Fabric softener and dryer sheets.
Does it work for a pilling wool coat? I accidentally washed my wool coat with water and soap and it was a nightmare. I wore the coat once and never have a chance to wear it again. Pls. advice me. Thanks a lot! (^_^)
Pilling happens when the fibers in the wool or cotton or whatever are short. They easily break wherever the cloth rubs (under the arms, where your purse goes over your shoulder, etc.) and form little balls - same as if you took a little pile of tiny threads and rubbed them between your thumb and forefinger into a little ball. When longer fibers are used (more expensive grades of wool or cotton), coats will usually resist pilling because the fibers can rub against each other (like when your arms swing) or other things (like a purse strap) without breaking from the friction. You may simply have got a cheap wool coat (no matter what the cost originally was) or it might have been blended with another kind of yarn that easily breaks and pills - or shrinks. You don't say exactly what went wrong with your coat, but it's also possible that the padding or interfacing between the wool shell and the interior lining was made of something that shifted or wadded up or shrunk. If that's the case - if the lining and wool shell are OK - you might be able to have the coat taken apart and put back together again with new padding, though that might be so expensive that it's cheaper just to get another coat. If the wool itself is 'ruined' you might have 'felted' the wool by rubbing it or agitating it against the sides of the washing machine, especially if you used hot water. In that case, you've matted the fibers together and they won't have the same size or texture as they had before they were felted.
I don't know what my wool coat is made of - if it's 100% wool or a blend. I can't read any label at this point, but it's definitely mostly wool. I turned it inside out and buttoned it. I don't have any net bag for washing it, so I carefully folded it and put it inside a 'European' square pillowcase and then in another pillowcase (with the fasteners on opposite sides when I buttoned it up). I put it in my front-loading Bosch Series 2 washing machine and put it on the 'wool' cycle, which barely agitated it - basically got it wet and soaked it (I used a little bit of ordinary washing liquid), turning it over a few times to keep it wet (the machine just agitated a turn or two and flopped the bundle over) during probably a 20-25 minute cycle. Then it rinsed it. I think it was spinning at 800 revolutions per minute. When I took it out, it was clean, nice-smelling, definitely not as 'tacky' feeling as it was dirty. It feels a little 'loftier' but not 'fluffy.' I mean the dirt seems to have washed out from between the fibers, so it doesn't have a kind of slick, matted feeling like it had before I washed it. I took it out of the washing machine probably 7-8 hours ago and laid it out on the drying rack. It's already dry enough to wear. It smells nice - just a faint whiff of what the washing liquid smells like. No felting, no problems with the lining bunching. It's not even noticeably wrinkled. In fact, the wrinkles in the arms - which were always there after dry cleaning - smoothed out with this method. It looks more 'ironed' than it used to look after dry cleaning and steam ironing by the professionals.
I cannot afford dry-cleaning now. I can't afford a special laundry detergent that's allegedly formulated for wool (and doubt it's any different from the normal stuff, to be honest) and I can't afford a special mesh bag. I learned the method watching a guy turn a men's suit inside out, put it in a mesh bag and wash it in the machine. I decided to try it even though if it went wrong I'd be without a winter coat in Central Europe in December, and without money to buy a new one.
It WORKS! And it only took 40 minutes in the machine. I saved time and a LOT of money and am happy as can be with the result.
Just a side note, you should NEVER pour detergent directly onto fabric/clothes because it can stain or damage the cloth before its' diluted into the water.
I'm much wiser in the ways of caring for wool now than when I did this video, but I'm actually glad I *did* pour it onto the coat, purely because I like to test 'do's' and 'don't's' for myself. Thanks for leaving a comment!! :)
***** If you know better now, can you tell people that in the description so that they can totally avoid staining their coats? (I know you say at your own risk--but you know, beginners don't know not to put soap directly on clothes ever, even when hand washing). Thank you for such a helpful video!! :)
candymiser Of course! Thanks for commenting. :)
Cathie- I purchased a "sweater shaver" from Fred Meyer 10 years ago for around $10 and it still works GREAT at removing all of the pilling that shows up on my wool coat. After a few minutes of using the sweater shaver my winter coats look brand new again.
Hi! Which brand of sweater shaver you have?
This was actually a really useful point-of-reference in cleaning mine myself for the first time. Thank-you.
Great vid. I've been doing this for years, with wool mix items its easier but pure new wool is a bit trickier, still doable. I sell vintage clothing and like to clean them if possible. I will always use a cold/wool cycle, minimal spinning and mild or little detergent.
:) Thanks for sharing your experience and tips, Dolly! Love hearing how others take care of their clothes.
thanks for sharing i sell vintage wool cardies and your tips is helpful
+Dolly Mat Great to know! Doesn't a 50% whole mix still shrink a little? If i wear a 42L should I buy a 44L since it will shrink?
+Normac rillem Hi i would say 50% would shrink a little yes as its more wool content. If you are talking about a mans wool suit cut or blazer jacket to be honest i wouldn't put that in the washer it'd be hell to iron unless you have a pro steamer. Even if it doesn't shrink it can lose shape which could be difficult to regain once dry.
Hi I just washed my old but like new Liz Claiborne wool coat 🧥 it was infested by little moths it came out great although there are tiny circles that had be eaten ugh 😑 but I tumble dried the coat on air for 40 minutes with my clean crocs so it would move more freely I’m so happy 😀
Realy good and helpful, thank you.
I wash my wool/polly coat often but on a cold wash with minimum powder and the hang to drain and dry, I never risk the tumble.
Thanks
Hi Miss cathie I'm happy we could wash at home, I just want to note that you can buy a lint ball machine. Machine can be found in most target rite aid stores like nthat
Apple mango tango detergent. She out for my heart
Thanks for showing this
You shouldn't use hot or cold water you should use warm water so you don't shock the wool, and should use detergent for wool and delicates.
I used cold water and the same laundry liquid detergent I use for all my clothes. I used only a small amount because I wasn't sure how much the wool cycle would rinse the coat. It came out fine, clean, lightly smelling of washing detergent (though it's still damp so I don't expect that smell to last and I have to really put my nose against it to smell it). My black coat looks blacker and feels 'loftier' than before washing it, and it came out with fewer creases than when it's dry-cleaned. After dry-cleaning, there were always the creases that come in the sleeves from bending your arms, even after they steamed and 'ironed' the coat. With this method, the coat looks more like new. Definitely I'm converted from dry-cleaning my coats!
Nice… gentle wash… no heat dry and we’re good to go!!!
thanks I will try to wash my wool coat too. my mom take her fur coat to drycleaning and it did shrink and it was bad job for dry cleaning shop so ...better to do my self LOL
Same thing happened
To me. They shrunk it at the cleaners & yelled in my face when I asked them what happened & if anything could be done to undo the shrinkage. Never again!!!
@@mulliganstew72 all my dry clean stuff I just use hand wash on my washer and dry it outside. ..and its ok
Dry cleaners charge you a fortune for possibly ruining your clothes with no guarantee if they're damaged. Plus they put your clothes in with tons of other clothes, yuk! I have a beautiful wool sweater coat I've been wanting to clean so I'm going to try this. I was afraid it would felt up on me. Thank you!
Thanks!! I got my friend's wool coat dirty when I borrowed it so I would've been done for without this!!
I think you'd better use a front-open machine and wool-specific detergent.
busan cun Ideally, yes. But when you have neither, and you're still in experimental mode, you make do with what you have. It turned out well. Thanks for the comment!
+Cathie Maud Cabot you go girl!!
+KieshaJ55 thank you! :)
+maliq30 I'm so glad it worked for you, and thank you for sharing your experience! Enjoy your lovely warm coat. :)
I used a small amount of ordinary laundry liquid like I use for everything. Worked fine. I wonder if those 'formulated for wool' detergents are any different in terms of ingredients. Some day maybe I'll read the labels and find out...
Have you ever tried washing a felted wool coat please?
thanks for killing my fear of washing machines....lol... seeing is believing
You're welcome, tanydwa . :) Glad I could help! Still must stress --be very, very careful!!
Is it okay to use fabric softner for wool coats?
No. It damages it according to what I read.
Fabric softener is bad for all of our clothes. For as long as I can remember I use an ungodly amount of fabric softener and all the little additives to make everything smell good. So to learn that fabric softener is horrible for your clothes broke little my heart lol. The first time you ever use fabric softener on your towels they lose a considerable amount of fluffiness, if not all of it. Fabric softener and dryer sheets.
Does it work for a pilling wool coat? I accidentally washed my wool coat with water and soap and it was a nightmare. I wore the coat once and never have a chance to wear it again. Pls. advice me. Thanks a lot! (^_^)
Pilling happens when the fibers in the wool or cotton or whatever are short. They easily break wherever the cloth rubs (under the arms, where your purse goes over your shoulder, etc.) and form little balls - same as if you took a little pile of tiny threads and rubbed them between your thumb and forefinger into a little ball. When longer fibers are used (more expensive grades of wool or cotton), coats will usually resist pilling because the fibers can rub against each other (like when your arms swing) or other things (like a purse strap) without breaking from the friction. You may simply have got a cheap wool coat (no matter what the cost originally was) or it might have been blended with another kind of yarn that easily breaks and pills - or shrinks.
You don't say exactly what went wrong with your coat, but it's also possible that the padding or interfacing between the wool shell and the interior lining was made of something that shifted or wadded up or shrunk. If that's the case - if the lining and wool shell are OK - you might be able to have the coat taken apart and put back together again with new padding, though that might be so expensive that it's cheaper just to get another coat.
If the wool itself is 'ruined' you might have 'felted' the wool by rubbing it or agitating it against the sides of the washing machine, especially if you used hot water. In that case, you've matted the fibers together and they won't have the same size or texture as they had before they were felted.
Get the de-piller from Conair.
This was a huge help. Thank you!
HELP!!!
How do you prevent silver/gold/ metallic buttons from fading?!? When washing!!!
Turn your coat inside out, and throw it in a pillowcase if possible. Also, fasten any buttons. Hope this helps. :)
thank you
I love your video thank you lol
💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎
Your voice is cute haha
Aw, thank you. :)
i love you thanks
You're funny...cute.
I just love your hands... I wish i can kiss them😍
And IAM new hi