How can you take proper care of our apparel and fabrics?

How many times have you destroyed your new piece of clothing by improper care? Perhaps you washed the white shirt with red socks. Maybe you ironed a polyester shirt on cotton settings, or washed it on 60°C. In order to prevent further mourning over your favourite pieces of clothing, we present to you a brief overview of proper care instructions for all items and fabrics purchased on Caspar Design web shop. Proper care of our products reflects our idea of sustainability and eco-friendliness. How can I take proper care of my printed fabrics and products?

Wash on low temperatures

It is a well-known fact that synthetic materials should not be washed on high temperatures, which are reserved for natural materials. However, lately we can hear about the importance of washing all apparel on lower temperatures, regardless of the material they are made of. Even brands such as Ariel and Tide started campaigns reflecting the importance of such procedures when it comes to sustainability. How can this help us preserve energy?

Let’s start with the most important fact: most CO₂ emissions that occur during the washing cycle (90% of total energy) comes from water heating. Therefore, lower temperature means less energy needed for washing.

Research has proven that if you lower the washing temperature from 40°C to 30°C, you save about 57% in energy costs. Asides from saving energy, these washing cycles are much shorter, meaning you will also save on water consumption.

If the entire Europe would lower their washing temperature from 40°C to 30°C, we could save 3,5 million tons of CO₂ per year. This is the equivalent of removing two million cars off the road.
If your clothes aren’t very soiled, and you use a detergent meant for cold washes, the washing results will be the same as if you have washed it on a higher temperature.
If your clothes are soiled, lower temperature can be compensated by a larger amount of detergent.

Asides from saving energy and helping with sustainable future, cold washing doesn’t damage the fabrics as much as washing on higher temperatures. In other words, by washing your shirt on 30°C, your favourite shirts will have those bright, cheerful colours for a longer period of time.

What about ironing clothes and fabrics?

If your clothes are made of materials that are prone to wrinkles, such as cotton, ironing will be that one chore you won’t be able to get out of. To prevent your iron from “accidentally” destroying your new favourite shirt, it is important to follow the instructions on proper ironing. These depend on the type of material the apparel is made of. If you aren’t sure about it, peek at the product’s label.

Cotton

Every iron either has settings based on the material type, or based on ironing temperature, most often in the shape of a wheel. Cotton is on the edge of this wheel, i.e., on the highest temperatures section. When ironing, choose standard cotton settings (high temperature). Another important piece of advice is to iron the apparel on the reverse side to preserve its colours and/or print.

Polyester settings are located at the beginning of the wheel (low temperatures). Be very careful and lower the temperature because colour transfer or material burning may occur.

Polyester

Linen

Even though it’s a natural material, linen doesn’t like higher temperatures because they can cause colour loss or material breaking. The right choice is a setting similar to those of polyester materials.

Steam ironing

Using ironing steam certainly helps with those pesky wrinkles. Nevertheless, avoid spraying the clothes with water. This can cause staining due to the materials found in water (irons use distilled water).

Why do new products smell like vinegar?

You have finally received that shirt you have been waiting for. You open the box and unfold the paper. Then, all of a sudden – a smell of vinegar. How come? Did someone prepare pickles in the warehouse?

Don’t panic, this is completely normal. The smell of vinegar comes from eco-friendly textile dyes. Vinegar has been used as a fixation agent for quite some time now. It is the agent that helps the colour attach to the surface. Without it, the colouring would fall off the material. So, if you smell vinegar, you can rest assured that you have purchased an eco-friendly product which uses natural ingredients in its colouring, instead of those heavy chemicals.

Dry-cleaning

Sometimes grown-ups are worse than children when it comes to stains. And sometimes these stains are so pesky that they cannot be removed by a simple detergent. Instead, we take the clothes to the cleaners. One of the chemicals that can be used in the dry-cleaning process is perchloroethylene, an industrial solvent. If you are visiting your dry cleaner, ask the clerk if they use this solvent, popularly called perc. Assuming they do, know that it can cause colour damage on your shirt or tablecloth.