Looking after your loungewear

Loungewear is worn more often than almost anything else in a wardrobe, so it is washed more often too. Nearly all of the wear we see on returned pieces comes from heat and from over-dosing detergent, not from the garment itself. The routine below keeps colour, loft and shape where they should be.

Washing

• Machine wash at 30 degrees on a normal cycle, with the drum no more than three-quarters full so the fabric can move.
• Turn sweat tops and fleece inside out. Brushed surfaces rub against zips and buttons, and inside out means any pilling happens on the face you cannot see.
• Use roughly two-thirds of the detergent dose on the bottle. Residue is what makes cotton feel stiff and grey after a season.
• Skip fabric conditioner on fleece and on brushed cotton. It coats the fibre, flattens the pile and cuts how much moisture the fabric will move.
• Wash the sand and chalk shades separately from pine and bark for the first two washes. Deep dyes give up a little surface colour early on.
• Close zips, fasten cardigan buttons and re-tie drawcords before washing so cords cannot be pulled inside the channel.

Drying

Line dry wherever you can. Cotton loopback and brushed fleece hold a lot of water, so give them a short spin rather than a long hot tumble. If you must tumble dry, use the lowest heat and take the piece out slightly damp, then pull the seams straight and let it finish in the air. Heat is what shrinks a jogger cuff and what makes a fleece feel plasticky.

Knitted cardigans should be dried flat, never on a hanger. A wet knit hung by the shoulders will grow 3-4cm and it will not come back. Reshape it on a towel, straighten the front bands, and turn it once halfway through.

Shrinkage and first wash

Expect 2-3 per cent shrinkage in length on cotton-rich pieces at the first wash. This is normal for the loopback and rib we use, and our patterns already carry an allowance for it, which is why we do not recommend sizing up to cover it. Washing hotter than 40 degrees will take a cotton piece well beyond that allowance.

Pilling, bobbling and pressing

Any brushed or soft-handle fabric will bobble somewhere it rubs, usually under the arm, at the seatbelt line and across a bag strap. It is surface fibre, not damage. Lay the piece flat and take the bobbles off with a fabric comb or a battery shaver, gently, in one direction. Do not pull them off by hand, that drags the yarn out of the fabric.

Press cotton pieces on a warm iron on the reverse, and hover a steamer rather than pressing knitwear. Never put an iron directly on fleece or on a printed care label.

Storage

Fold everything. Hanging a heavy fleece or a longline cardigan for a season drops the shoulder line. Store folded with a little air around the pile so the fleece keeps its loft, and keep pieces out of long direct sunlight, which fades pine and sage faster than washing does.

Stains, quickly

Blot rather than rub. Cold water and a little washing-up liquid handles tea, coffee and most food; give oil marks a dab of neat detergent for ten minutes before a normal wash. Avoid bleach entirely, including so-called colour-safe bleach, on anything sand or oat.

Repairs and questions

A drawcord that has vanished into its channel, a button off a cardigan, a cuff that has lost its stretch: write to support@moudest.shop and tell us the style and size. We keep spare buttons and cords for the pieces we sell and will post them out. Care symbols and fibre detail for each style sit on the product page and at https://moudest.shop/materials.

MOUDEST LIMITED
Company number 17295658, registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: 95 Miles Road, Mitcham, CR4 3FH, United Kingdom
Email: support@moudest.shop

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