10/16/2019

Jewelry, Purses, and Briefcases Can Damage Clothing

Sad but true. The things we enjoy wearing with our clothes, or the things we need to function in everyday life can cause damage to our clothing. Buttons, trinkets, necklaces, and watches can have rough edges that rub up against necklines or sleeve cuffs causing the fabric to abrade. Shoulder straps and cross straps from purses, briefcases, and bags can leave snags, pulls, or shiny places on fabric.

Below is a list of how smooth satins and silks, plush chenille items, and soft wool garments are impacted:

• Smooth stain-type fabrics are especially vulnerable because many yarns float on the surface of the fabric. Jewelry and bags constantly rub a specific area which weakens the fibers, allowing them to shift, weaken, or break during cleaning. This leaves a fuzzy, pilled, or snagged surface.
• Plush, soft chenille yarns is easily snagged by jewelry or slightly rough surfaces like purse straps, bracelets, backpacks, and even desks or arms on a chair. When the yarn catches on an item, it gets caught and then gets pulled out from the weave. In severe cases, the pile fibers fall out of the yarn and only a sheer net of the base yarn remains.
• Loosely woven wool garments made from soft, low-twist yarns may show pilling along the lower front thanks to rubbing against a countertop. Pilling could also occur along the edge of the sleeve hem thanks to abrasion from a watchband.

Worst of all, damage may not become visible until the item is cleaned. Many times, the initial contact or rubbing causes the fabric fibers to weaken; then, the agitation that occurs during the cleaning process will cause the weakened fibers to either break or show wear.

If you have questions about items that could damage your favorite clothing, stop by or call one of our locations and speak to a manager. We are here to help.