Washing cotton-rich garments
Cotton-rich garments include t-shirt and hoodies that are made of a high percentage of cotton. We all love cotton for its soft feel and breathability - there is honestly no other fiber like cotton. However when not properly cared for, your cotton garments can get damaged.
Also, all cotton clothes in general are prone to shrinking even after preshrinking. All of Dreamily’s cotton garments are preshrunk, but depending on how it’s washed and dried can determine how much additional shrinkage each garment experiences. All cotton garments can stretch and shrink many times.
Handwashing is highly recommended, or at least gentle cycle with cold water in your washer.
There are many different ways to dry your garment. Hang to dry is very efficient, but may slightly stretch your garment over time from the weight of the garment pulling down when hanging. By laying flat to dry, your garment would most likely stay in its original shape without warping. When the garment is almost done drying, you can toss it in the dryer for a few minutes to “toast it up” before putting it away.
By using a drying machine to dry your garment, it will experience shrinkage depending on the heat level you use - the hotter it is, the more it will shrink. We recommend to tumble low in the lowest heat setting possible and be weary of shrinkage when doing so. After several tests, we find that most of the shrinkage happens length-wise and minimally width-wise.
Washing polyester-rich garments
Polyester-rich garments, which are found mostly in our dresses, is resistant to stretching, wrinkles and shrinking. It’s not as breathable as cotton-rich fabrics, but it’s tradeoff is it’s durable and wrinkle resistant. We do not have to worry about polyester fabrics in wash like cotton.
Polyester can be machine washed cold, but be careful of additional hardwares on the dresses that can cause damage, like the heart buckles on the “LOVESTRUCK” dresses. You can put the garments in a mesh bag if needed.
It can also be machine dried in low temperature settings. Since polyester is a synthetic fabric that is literally extruded plastic, super high heat can melt it. Hanging or laying flat to dry is also a safe option if one is able to do so.
Windbreakers
Our windbreakers are coated with a special coating that gives it it’s windproof and waterproof qualities.
We highly recommend to only spot clean with a wet towel and mild soap only when necessary and avoid putting it in a machine wash. The coating will wash away during wash, and will not perform optimally as intended. The jacket should still be ok, but it will not be waterproof or windproof.
Please also avoid putting it in the dryer and do not dry clean.
Caring for the artwork
To ensure the artwork is not damaged or lightened during wash, it’s best to reduce the amount of times it’s washed.
Did you know each time you wash your clothes in washing machine, thousands - if not millions - of fibers are taken away from the clothes and washed down into the water system? This also included inks (like in the artwork print) and also dyes. This is why denim is also highly recommended not to wash often. All clothes in a washing machine will experience some sort of abrasion from the clothes washing itself against other garments.
It is completely natural for “loose” ink to be washed away during a printed garment’s first wash. To reduce the amount, it’s best to handwash, but you can also turn the garment inside out and wash on low or gentle machine cycle.
You can hang or lay flay to dry for the most optimal result (and then “toast it up” by tossing it in the dryer in low heat setting when it’s almost dry), or machine dry low temp with discretion.
Other factors like what else is washed with the printed garments, water temperature and kind of detergent will also determine how well the artwork holds up during a wash.
Bleaching/ironing/dry cleaning
If bleach must be used, we recommend color-safe bleach on the cotton-rich garments. Polyester-rich garments and fabric that have spandex in them should not use bleach as it can discolor and damage the integrity of the fabric. Use bleach with discretion.
When ironing, use the appropriate lowest heat setting possible (like polyester, cotton at its lowest setting), and avoid pressing on the artwork at all times. You can put a t-shirt over the artwork or even iron the shirt turned inside out if needed.
Dry cleaning is not recommended for many Dreamily garments.