We appreciate well-made, tailored garments, natural fabrics, classic styling as well as eclectic items. We always look for quality in an item and/or a bit of fun or whimsy. New clothing is so darn expensive and half of it is not of any quality. Here are some of our secrets for caring for clothing so that you can enjoy it longer and for getting rid of spots and stains that at first seem impossible.

Washing & Drying Delicates

Energy costs may not be earth-shattering but are still a cost. Even more costly are women's delicates. The elastic and delicate fabrics are destroyed by standard washer and dryer methods. It is simple and gratifying to save these delicates and reduce your electric bill. Mesh Bags prevent items from being wrapped around the agitator or having the hooks (in bras) snagging other items. Very simple to just throw the items into mesh bags and drop them into the washer. It is also very simple to hang your panties and bras up to air dry. You can use a Carousel Dryer or an indoor Retractable Clothesline, or hang them on an outdoor line. And it is a bonus to have the items in the bags, because you do not have to dig through the washer to sort them out, if you plan to hang them anyway.

Hand-washing Clothing

The suggested care of garments is almost always listed on the tag and you have probably noticed that more and more manufacturers are stating dry-clean only. However, dry-cleaning items can be very costly. We are in no way suggesting that you ignore the label. But many items can successfully be hand washed and air-dried if you are careful and know what you are doing. Please realize though that you may end up having to iron these hand-washed items.

First place a small tub or bucket in your laundry sink or bathtub and fill it with cold water and a bit of laundry detergent for delicates, such as Woolite. Hand agitate the water until the water and detergent are mixed. A teaspoon of detergent should suffice, because if you use too much then you will not be able to rinse it out. Immerse one item in the tub and hand agitate for a minute or so. Do not mix items. Let the item soak in water for a while and then hand agitate again. If you have a spot, you can gently rub the fabric together to remove to try to remove the spot.

When done with the washing then empty the tub and then gently squeeze the garment. Do not wring it. Now fill the tub with clear, cold water. Hand agitate again. Repeat until the soap is completely rinsed out. Then gently squeeze the garment again. Lay the garment flat on a spread-out towel. Roll the garment in the towel (like rolling up a sleeping bag) and then squeeze the towel to remove a good amount of the moisture.Your garment should be dry enough that water is NOT dripping from it. If the towel is soaked and the garment is still very wet then repeat with a dry towel.

To dry the item use a flat, garment drying rack for items that need to be blocked to their original shape, such as a sweater. A flat drying rack is mesh so the item will dry on both sides at the same time. If you do not have one, then lay the item flat on a towel.

If an item will retain it's original shape you can hang it up on a plastic hanger or using an indoor clothesline.

Note that you can reduce the wrinkles in hand-washed items by placing them in a dryer with a softener sheet, ON LOW for a few minutes. But be very, very careful with items that will shrink. Dryer heat will shrink an item in no time!!

Spot-Cleaning Clothing

We have rescued many items by spot-cleaning. Please note though that you really do need to check if an item is color-fast by testing your cleaner in an inconspicuous area. Many older fabrics are not color-fast. Of course, if an item is washable, then simply pre-treating and washing it may remove the problem. Plus you can always try dry-cleaning for a professional, but more costly fix. Plus we have unsuccessfully dry-cleaned items and then removed the stain with GONZO.

GONZO is our savior when it comes to removing spots, especially for items that normally do not go in the washer. It does not work for everything and, yes, we have ruined some things because we did not test the color-fastness. But this product has removed so many stains in new and old clothing that we swear by it. Gonzo works especially well on wool, poly, cotton and creped fabrics . . . be careful with silk!

You can follow the directions on the bottle but here are some of our helpful hints.

First place a white cloth under the stain to protect other parts of the clothing. Then squirt a small amount of Gonzo onto another white cloth. Gently rub the Gonzo'd cloth on the stain. Be kind to the fabric and do not scrub it. We prefer a circular motion, using my index finger to apply pressure! You may have to do this several times, continually making sure that the area of the cloth you are using is clean. If the spot is not budging, you can squirt the Gonzo directly on the spot and let it sit for a minute or two. Then try to work the spot out with a clean white cloth.

If you are successful with removing the spot, continue to rub the area from the center of the stain outward, sort of feathering the area. Many times the stain and the Gonzo disappear, but sometimes you may get a ring. I find that continuing to dry the area and feathering outward is highly successful in eliminating a ring. Also hand washing the item normally eliminates any ring.

If the item is white and a natural fabric like linen or cotton, you can likely reduce the visibility of a spot with a bleach pen. BUT, bleach does not always remove a spot, it simply lightens it. So the darker the stain the harder it is to eliminate it. And the white may not always match. But it can still work to make many stains less noticeable.

Hard To Remove Stains and General Dinginess/Dirtiness

Sometimes a garment needs a good old-fashioned cleaning . . . with modern-day products. Oxiclean and Biz are the favorites in our clothing rescue arsenal! Again you have to be alert to what is really not hand-washable or color-fast and you have to be willing to take a chance as a last-ditch effort on garments that you are not sure will stand up to these products.

Once again you will need a bucket or a tub and also remember to only soak one garment at a time. Put the tub or bucket in your laundry sink or your bathtub. Generally you will be successful if you follow the directions on these products, but here are a few helpful hints. If a fabric is delicate or shrinkable use COLD water. Since it is difficult to dissolve the these products in cold water, first put a bit of warm water in the bottom of the tub, add the BIZ or Oxiclean and hand agitate to dissolve. Please make sure that the crystals are dissolved before you  put your garment in te tub. Then fill the tub with cold water. Add the garment to the tub and make sure that the whole garment it saturated. Let it soak for at least several hours. The more difficult the problem the longer the soak. We usually leave things soak overnight and hand agitate a couple of times.

If the garment is machine-washable, then you can throw it in the washer after you have pre-soaked it. Simply follow the garment's instructions for washing and drying.

If the garment is dry-clean only then you have to treat it like you hand-washed it. Take the garment out of the tub and gently squeeze it. Do not wring it. Empty the tub and fill with clear, cold water. Hand agitate again. Repeat until soap is completely rinsed out. Then gently squeeze garment again.

Lay garment flat on a spread-out towel. Roll the towel (like rolling up a sleeping bag) and then squeeze towel to remove a good amount of the moisture.Your garment should be dry enough that water is NOT dripping from it. If the towel is soaked and the garment is still very wet then repeat with a dry towel.

To dry the item use a flat, garment drying rack for items that need to be blocked to their original shape, such as a sweater. A flat drying rack is mesh so the item will dry on both sides at the same time. If you do not have one, then lay the item flat on a towel. If an item will retain it's original shape you can hang it up on a plastic hanger and use a Retractable Clothesline for the hangers.

Note that if you want to reduce the wrinkles in hand-washed items, you can place them in a dryer with a softener sheet, ON LOW for a few minutes. But be very, very careful with items that will shrink.Dryer heat will shrink an item in no time.

NOT SUCCESSFUL  :-{

Sometimes you simply cannot rescue your item.  So what do you do. You could donate it, but if it is not wearable, many donation places will just pitch the item.  But you can still get the tax-deduction.

If the item has cool buttons, then clip them off and save them for a sewing project or to make a bracelet (string onto elastic)

If the item is silk, you can cut into squares, dip the silk squares in warm water and wrap around hard-boiled eggs for Easter eggs. After the color transfers, remove the fabric square. They really are beautiful.

If it is wool, you can cut into strips and braid a rug.  I did this in college and what a task.

Or you can just say you gave it your best shot, say good-bye to the garment.