[Liesl Gibson]

I hand wash all my wool and cashmere. If you hand wash in lukewarm or water before you cut, you’ll be fine with hand washing the finished garment. The combination of agitation and hot water cause felting, which is why it’s not a good idea to throw your good wool items in with the regular wash. But dry cleaning is over-rated!

[jay_1965vw]

I had four wool fabrics to use in Audrey’s winter wardrobe this year, and I didn’t want to be stuck dry cleaning or even hand washing them. I cut a 20 x 20cm sample of each, and sewed a 10cm straight line of stitching in warp and weft directions (contrast colour, very carefully measured, and with backstitching at each end), I then washed them in a delicates washbag with my normal wash, and measured the stitching. I kept washing until they stopped shrinking. My normal wash is only 40 degrees C, so it wasn’t going to felt them. I kept a little chart of which fabric shrank how much in each direction. None of them shrank any more after 4 washes, and one only needed washing once. The one that needed four washes was a very loosely woven boucle.

So long as you treat the fabric before you cut it, you should be fine!