Care

Machine washing

A machine can be used for most of a drawer, provided four settings are right and one accessory is used. The default cycle is the problem, not the machine.

The reason a machine damages intimates is not the water. It is the mechanical action: a drum tumbling garments against each other and against the drum wall for forty minutes, at a spin speed that can exceed a thousand revolutions per minute. A hook moving at that speed through a lace ground will take threads with it. Almost all of the damage is preventable by controlling agitation.

The four settings

Temperature: 30 degrees: Enough for lightly soiled garments with a liquid detergent, and low enough that elastane survives. Cotton briefs alone can go at 40.
Cycle: delicate, hand wash or wool: These programmes use gentler drum movement and more water, so garments move in water rather than against each other.
Spin: 400 to 600 revolutions per minute, or none: High spin speeds force water out by pressing fabric hard against the drum, which is exactly what creases moulded foam and deforms wires. A low spin leaves the garment wetter, which is fine because it is being dried flat anyway.
Load: small and uniform: Intimates with intimates. Never with towels, jeans, anything with a zip, or anything with velcro.

The spin speed does more damage than the temperature, and it is the setting nobody thinks to change.

The bag

A zipped mesh laundry bag is not optional for anything structured. It stops hooks reaching other garments, keeps straps from tangling round the agitator and prevents wires from being levered out of their channels. Use a bag sized to the garment: one bra per bag for a moulded or wired bra, since two in the same bag will press against each other.

A mesh bag with a zip rather than a drawstring, and a cover flap over the zip pull if it has one.
A structured, box shaped bag for moulded cups, which prevents them being folded flat.
Fill the bag loosely. A tightly packed bag does not allow water and detergent through.
Check the seams of the bag occasionally. A split bag is worse than no bag, because the garment is then loose and trailing mesh.

Preparing the load

Fasten every hook, popper and clasp.
Undo any strap that has been converted or crossed, so it cannot knot.
Turn heavily embellished pieces inside out.
Check pockets in sleepwear, and check that nothing in the load has an open zip.
Separate new dark or red items and wash them alone the first few times.
Load the drum no more than two thirds full. Overloading reduces water movement, which means poorer rinsing and more garment on garment contact.

Detergent and dose

Liquid, mild, and about half the recommended dose. A delicate cycle uses more water and a lower temperature, and excess detergent will not be fully rinsed out at those settings. The residue stiffens lace, dulls colour and gives fabric a slippery feel that people mistake for softener.

No fabric softener, no chlorine bleach and no colour boosters. If the machine has a second rinse or an extra rinse option, use it for anything worn against skin, particularly sleepwear.

What should not go in a machine at all

Silk of any kind, unless the machine has a genuine silk programme and a silk detergent is used.
Anything with a broken wire or a split channel.
Anything with loose silicone strips, which detergent will finish off.
Fine Leavers lace, which is worth the ten minutes in a basin.
Anything with a delicate embellishment that is glued rather than stitched.

For everything on that list, see hand washing. For what to do once the cycle ends, which is where more garments are ruined than in the wash itself, see drying and storing.