Wool sweaters, especially fine items like wool and cashmere, are very delicate and it could happen that some types of washing, or the use of the wrong products to clean the garment, cause the wool to felt. But
can you unfelt a wool sweater , thus saving the garment we were fond of? There are certainly some remedies of proven effectiveness, such as some practical and quick DIY remedies that can be done even by self-taught people. Here is how to proceed in the case of wool felting.
Recovering a Felted Item: Here Are the DIY Remedies
A garment becomes felted when wool is washed at the wrong temperatures: in these cases, it will appear hard and compact, sweaters, cardigans and accessories therefore lose their natural elasticity. The size of the sweaters is noticeably reduced and
it is almost impossible to wear felted garments again . Fortunately, the last word has not been said, as it is possible to remedy even such a disaster, sometimes even with completely natural remedies.
Felted Wool: How to Use Ammonia
For
light felting , you can try to solve the problem by soaking the sweater for a couple of hours in a basin filled with
a solution of water and three tablespoons of ammonia . To make the treatment more effective, you can continue with a further soak in a basin with milk, leaving time to regenerate the fibers of the garment for about half an hour. Finally, wash the sweater with a specific detergent for wool: it is better to choose to wash the garment by hand, at least to see if the treatment has been effective.
Alternatively, you can only do the last step, soaking the sweater in a solution of milk and water for an hour and rinsing it with a simple fabric softener for delicate garments and fine fibers.
Save Felted Sweaters with Hair Conditioner
If you prefer
gentler products than detergents and chemical components , you can opt for
hair conditioner , especially the anti-frizz and smoothing types. You can create a solution with the following ingredients:
- Warm water at about 36°C
- 4 heaped tablespoons of hair conditioner
- 1 glass of apple cider vinegar
- Lemon juice
The felted sweater should be soaked in a basin containing the solution in these proportions. After that, it is necessary to let it act for an hour and create another solution composed of warm water, the same amount of conditioner, and lemon juice. For the second soak, it is sufficient to calculate half the time, after which it is possible to hang the sweater, trying to avoid it from tightening again. You can also use
the trick of the weight of the water to make the sweater stretch so that it recovers its original size, in fact the garment should not be wrung out. However, it is not advisable to hang it vertically if the garment tends to lose its shape, while it is necessary for garments such as cardigans and twin sets.
Felted Sweaters and Baking Soda: How to Make the DIY Remedy Work
Another valid alternative in case of felting of one of our wool garments is to use bicarbonate in combination with
tartaric acid .
The felted sweater must be soaked overnight with bicarbonate , to then be washed the following morning with an ultra delicate detergent, specific for
wool garments . At this point, if the sweater still needs treatment, you can immerse it in a basin containing warm water and two tablespoons of tartaric acid, leave it to act for an hour and rinse the garment.
Cashmere Sweaters: What to Do When Your Garment Is Felted
As a fine wool, cashmere must be treated with due care and good prevention must be taken to prevent the garment from being ruined, by treating the wool with special combs. Furthermore,
men's sweaters , cardigans and women's sweaters in cashmere should never be washed in the washing machine : it is always preferable to wash them by hand, without wringing the garment. Finally, the ideal would be to wrap the sweater in a towel to dab off the excess water and hang it up without distorting it.
To recover a felted cashmere sweater, chemical substances are banned : it is preferable to use hair conditioner or a specific fabric softener for this purpose. You can try pouring warm water over the sweater, held vertically, and then leave it to soak in a solution containing warm water and 4 tablespoons of detangling and anti-frizz hair conditioner, or two doses of fabric softener. Let it soak for an hour and repeat the process until the cashmere garment is restored.
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