After winter ends, all warm clothes are usually put away in the closet, waiting in the wings. But before hiding them in a long drawer, clothes and shoes should be thoroughly cleaned and washed so that dirt and dust do not become embedded in the material over many months. Usually this process is not difficult until it comes to washing items with filling.
It would seem that there is nothing difficult - put it in the machine and select the desired mode. Yes, there are no problems in the washing process itself. Usually they appear after it, when the question arises of how to straighten the padding polyester in a jacket or down jacket. It is better to prepare in advance and familiarize yourself with the nuances of the procedure.
There are several methods on how you can make your clothes look beautiful again, and we will look at each in detail.
Carpet beater
If the padding polyester goes astray, a regular carpet beater will save you. If you don’t have such a device, take a tennis racket or a regular stick, just a smooth one so as not to damage the fabric. You can use a baguette.
What to do:
- Hang your outerwear on hangers. Place the hanger in such a place that you can freely approach from all sides and beat up the padding polyester filler.
- The product must be zipped, the pockets must also be zipped.
- Then you can beat the padding polyester. You just need to do this carefully, without making too much effort, so as not to damage the jacket.
- You need to continue whisking the filler until there is not a single stray lump left.
A regular stick is not as effective as a carpet beater. The latter evenly distributes the padding polyester in the down jacket.
Using plastic balls or tennis balls
To increase the effectiveness of the procedure, it is worth using balls for washing. During the procedure, the padding polyester often gets knocked down. Plastic or tennis balls will help avoid this. Such devices help the jacket fluff up during washing and help avoid loss of shape.
It is worth considering that the more balls are used for washing, the better the procedure will be and the more beautiful the item will turn out. To carry out the procedure using balls, it is recommended to place them in the washing machine along with the jacket. After completing the manipulation, the balls should be dried and stored until the next use.
Vacuum cleaner
If the synthetic padding in your jacket gets lost, take a vacuum cleaner. This unit will probably be found in every home.
The manipulation must be carried out immediately after washing in the machine, do not wait for the product to dry. Otherwise, you won’t be able to straighten the insulation well with a vacuum cleaner.
How to distribute the filler correctly:
- Lay out the down jacket horizontally.
- Turn on the vacuum cleaner and run a stream of air over those areas where the least amount of filler has accumulated, distribute the padding polyester gradually and move from one place to another. Try to process one area, then another, do not process the jacket randomly, this will take more time.
- After finishing the procedure, leave the jacket in a horizontal position so that the filling does not roll up again.
After complete drying, you can hang the item on hangers and beat it again with a carpet beater.
Last resort - tear off the lining
In some cases, when all of the above methods do not have a positive result, it is necessary to resort to drastic methods. One of them is to open the lining of the clothing. To do this, use nail scissors to carefully rip the side seam (or both), and then manually distribute the insulation over the entire area.
Again we try to straighten with our hands
If the padding polyester pellets are too dense and do not lend themselves to the above methods, the manual method is the most effective. To do this, after ripping open the lining of the jacket using your thumb and index finger, the insulation should be straightened, not leaving a single centimeter unattended. It is necessary to act so that after the procedure it has the same thickness over the entire area.
Replacing the filler
If padding polyester has rolled up in your jacket, experts, for example, professional seamstresses, will tell you what to do in this case. In difficult situations, you have to resort to the services of an atelier or needlewomen working from home. They will help you bring your favorite jacket back to its original form for relatively little money.
If you know how to sew yourself, then changing the lining at home will not be difficult. To do this, you need to rip the fabric lining along the side stitches, separate the material, and then sew on a new insulation sheet. For such purposes, padding polyester is taken in rolls, since it already has the desired shape and there is no need to distribute it.
Tip: to prevent the synthetic padding polyester from clumping into balls during subsequent washes, it is recommended to secure it in several places with threads.
Re-wash
If the jacket cannot be returned to its previous condition, you can wash it again in the washing machine.
This also has its own nuances; if the procedures are carried out incorrectly a second time, you may have to replace the lining and filler.
How to wash correctly:
- You can’t pre-soak the product, it can worsen the situation and even more lumps will appear.
- Down jackets must be washed in a drum-type machine; no semi-automatic machines with activators can be used.
- The temperature should not exceed 30 degrees.
- Liquid laundry detergent should be used as a detergent. Otherwise there will be divorces.
- Place several tennis balls in the drum. During the procedure, they will beat the padding polyester or fluff, and will not allow them to clump too much. No matter what the down jacket is made of, tennis balls won't hurt.
- It is not recommended to use regular rinse aid; it can cause the filler to stick together. You can use a special conditioner for washing down.
If a woman has washed her down jacket correctly, there should be no problems with the filling being fluffed up. And if you follow all the recommendations, you may not have to straighten the insulation at all.
How to reduce the amount of filling in a jacket
Often women make purchases in a fit of emotion. A seemingly beautiful jacket that fit perfectly in the store, but upon closer examination at home turns out to be not quite the same shade, style, or even volume.
Of course, you can return it to the seller if you are not satisfied with the size or model. But what to do if the new thing fits all the parameters, but due to the abundance of insulation inside it looks like a life jacket?
There is only one way out - to reduce the amount of padding polyester. To do this, there are several ways:
- Rip the lining and gradually remove the insulation, making sure that there is not too little left, and then join the fabric again.
- Sew the jacket. At the same time, the amount of insulation and, accordingly, the size of the item are automatically reduced.
- Give it to the studio.
- Iron with an iron with steam function. When ironed, the synthetic winterizer “tramples down”, due to which it decreases slightly in volume.
To learn how to properly straighten the insulation in a jacket, we advise you to watch videos that cover this process in detail. The recommendations will be useful to every housewife, since the problem occurs quite often. And preventive measures can reduce the likelihood and completely avoid this trouble.
Replacement
The most extreme measure is to replace the filler. After purchasing a down jacket, not everyone knows how to wash it correctly, but they begin to get acquainted with this information after the procedure has failed and ended in damage to the product or crumpling of the filling.
And sometimes no methods help straighten the insulation if it gets knocked down. All that remains is to take the item to the studio to replace the filler.
This pleasure is not cheap, so always read the manufacturer’s recommendations regarding washing outerwear so that fluff and synthetic winterizer do not form into clumps.
Popular methods that don't work
There are many websites on the Internet that recommend using a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer to get rid of lumps. We tested both of these options and can say with confidence that they are ineffective in the case of padding polyester. Previously, we conducted a similar experiment with a down jacket and there these methods worked a little better.
Using a vacuum cleaner
The method is to use a bag and a vacuum cleaner with reverse mode. The jacket is placed in a bag and the air is pumped out of it. Then switch the vacuum cleaner to reverse mode and fill the bag with air again. This is repeated several times.
This method works for clothes made from natural down, but not padding polyester. Artificial filler has a different structure and crumples into denser fragments.
Using a hair dryer
Another ineffective way is to use a hair dryer. This procedure is done with a slightly damp jacket. You need to turn on the hair dryer at medium power and supply cold air. While blowing through the filler, you must simultaneously level and smooth it with your hands. In this way, the clothes should be processed on both sides.
It is difficult to call this method effective. For the most part, you will still have to work with your hands; the air stream will only dry the jacket and that's it.
Prevention
To prevent the padding polyester from whipping, it is better to wash the item by hand in the bathroom. You can use the same detergents as for the machine.
Try to rub the down jacket less, it is better to go over it with a clothes brush.
It is necessary to dry the item in a horizontal position, straightening out small lumps.
To avoid having to look for ways to straighten the filling yourself later, you should properly wash and dry the down jacket. This is the only way to prevent the formation of lumps.
Reasons for deformation of padding polyester
An automatic machine is not only harmless to the fiber structure, but is even more effective than hand washing. It is difficult to get rid of detergent residue in a bulk product using a basin or bathtub. But the household appliance will cope with this task brilliantly.
The following are detrimental to the structure of the material:
- hot water;
- aggressive powders, bleaches;
- high spin speeds.
If washed incorrectly, along with aesthetics, the main functions of the material - heat capacity, moisture resistance - are also lost.
Useful tips
To prevent items with synthetic insulation from being damaged during the washing process, follow these recommendations:
- Carefully check the pockets and remove their contents.
- Turn the jacket inside out before washing.
- Stains must be pre-treated with laundry soap or a stain cleaner designed for synthetic items.
- Synthetic materials do not withstand high temperatures very well. Therefore, it is best to wash such products, following the recommendations about 30-degree water.
- To avoid the formation of streaks, give preference to liquid detergents that dissolve easily in water, and set the extra rinse mode.
- Avoid mechanically spinning items in the washing machine. After the wash cycle has completed, remove most of the water from the item by hand and wait until the rest of the water drains out. To avoid causing mold to develop due to stagnant moisture, first hang the jacket on hangers in the bathroom or outside. Afterwards, dry on a horizontal surface. And when the item is almost dry, hang it on hangers again so that it retains its correct shape and there are no unsightly creases and folds.
Important! It is unacceptable to dry down jackets with artificial filling near heating devices, fireplaces and outdoors in a sunny place if you want the item to serve you for a long time, be beautiful and provide you with comfort during the cold season.
We sincerely hope that our recommendations will help restore your jacket to its former attractiveness and it will delight you with its cleanliness. If you still fail to achieve the desired result, most likely the clothes are hopelessly damaged and you will have to buy a replacement.
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Washing and removing stains
Before washing your jacket in the washing machine, you need to carefully inspect it to detect any contaminants that the powder cannot remove. What to do if there are such spots? It is better to treat them before washing.
For this purpose, you can use any means to combat dirt: stain removers, dishwashing detergents, laundry or baby soap. To remove decorative cosmetics, you can wipe the stain with medical alcohol.
For these purposes, the product is applied directly to the stain, after moistening it with water, and left for 15-30 minutes. Then you need to rub the dirt with a soft brush or sponge and rinse the jacket in cool water. After which you can safely turn on the washing mode.
Extreme measures
If the proposed methods do not help save a warm item, they resort to radical methods. In the area of the greatest accumulation of lumps, peel off the lining and straighten the filler with your hands. At the same time, they try to lay it evenly to fill all the resulting voids. The insulation layer is then secured with a few stitches of thread and the lining is sewn into place.
When the synthetic padding has gone astray on most of the jacket, it’s easier not to straighten it, but to completely change it. In this case, the item is taken to the studio, where the master can replace the old down or padding polyester with a new one. This service will not be cheap, but it will still be less than the cost of a new jacket.
