How To Care For Specialty Buttons
If you've come across some fabulous buttons for your finished projects, but have been unsure how to care for them, we've got some great tips and suggestions from Ho-mei at Arrow Mountain. Her advice is great to follow when using her beautiful wooden buttons, and is equally applicable to ceramic buttons, leather buttons, or other delicate embellishments.
The wood buttons are washable, but will last longer and look better by following a couple of easy steps. Ho-mei wraps her buttons in small pieces of aluminium foil before washing her garments. This protects them from hard abrasives found in detergent and makes sure they don't get scratched by other items in the wash. The aluminium is reusable, so she keeps the little bits in a jar to reuse.
Ho-mei also shared alternative methods she has used when washing her delicate items:
Other things you could do to protect your button during a wash:
- Put it in a mesh laundry bag
- Turn the garment inside out
- Do up all the buttons (so that they don’t move and rub with other surfaces as much in the washer)
- Wash in cold water
- Set the spin cycle to the lowest speed to prevent damage
- Avoid soaking the buttons in water for a prolonged period of time
- Dry naturally
With buttons this beautiful, they are definitely worth the extra step to keep looking great for years to come.
This is great advice to follow when washing any items with leather or ceramic buttons you use. And be sure to show those projects some love by using a delicate wool wash!
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