Blogtoberfest Day 25: Clothing Care Secrets and More ThriftyFinds

Clothing care is an important part of any one's wardrobe. While most store-bought garments have a garment care label, it is really only a guideline. When you make your own clothes or you have bought used clothes, a deeper knowledge of how to care for them is required. Most, but not all, can be laundered if proper care is taken. The "dry clean only" recommendation is purely a recommendation and is certainly not necessary for all garments. Jodi at Couture Allure has just posted an excellent tutorial about washing vintage silk scarves which is a happy coincidence. I would use the same advice for washing silk blouses. My intended post for today was touching on spot cleaning. The photo here shows a chocolate-brown linen skirt with a mark, which I believe is chocolate. While travelling in Europe this past summer with the choir in which my boys sing, I learned a new method while wearing the same skirt. The wife of one of the men in the choir, a long-time wardrobe mistress for musicals, operas, ballets and theatres, noticed some marks on the back of my skirt and said that she could take care of it. She grabbed a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer and applied it directly to my skirt and rubbed it in with her hands. Within seconds, the mark was gone and within a minute or two, the spot was dry, without a trace of a mark.


Here is the same spot shown in the above photo after using the same method. You may wish to do a spot test in an inconspicuous spot on the garment, but as I understand it, most fibres will not be harmed by the hand sanitzer. From an environmental perspective and frugal slant this method wins over the spot treatments available to the home consumer or through the dry cleaner.








Now for a little thrifting: Here is a lovely pink melamine bowl. It is not vintage, but I have a soft spot for melamine and this shade of pink should work well with my vintage pieces. This pink is a happy colour for me and with some rather grey days in the last week, it gives me a boost. I am also very excited about this ribbon which is also not vintage but drew me in with its colour.






I love using wooden hangers for clothing care and these will work well for skirts and jacket. Good shaping through the shoulder or waistband require a solid hanger that offers enough support. When it is not necessary to launder a garment, hang the garment and allow it to air out, to dissipate the heat and moisture from your body, before returning it to your closet. This photo shows a packet of craft magnets and two hem clips along with a package of suction cup spiders to aid in Halloween decoration.


I also found pyjama pants for my husband and a long-sleeved polo for my eldest along with this somewhat homely stool. I have been inspired by the lovely Tif Fussel at Dottie Angel rambling on about dumpties. I love all of her crafty world and would like to stay there for a while. I hope that my stool will live up to the magic of Tif's inspiration. I found the Dottie Angel Blog through Sophie at Her Library Adventures but immediately recognized its style having seen it in Mollie Makes and Uppercase magazines. Her blog is fabulous and I am linking this post to Flea Market Finds.