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SALT LAKE CITY — Love them or hate them, you have to wear clothes in most situations if you don’t want to get arrested.
Whether you want to spend as little on clothes as possible or make the most out of clothes you invest in, making a little extra effort to properly care for your clothes will make them last longer (saving you money) and look better.
No group of people may know that better than theater costume designers. Not only because they alter and use existing costumes over and over again, but they also have to maintain clean and well-looking costumes through the run of a show. Basically, the longer they can make a costume last, the more they can stretch their budgets to do magnificent things for the stage.
After working in Brigham Young University’s theater costume shop for five years, I picked up a few helps that make my personal wardrobe look better and last longer with little investment.
Fels-Naptha Soap
Make-up stains or ring around the collar are no match for this pre-treatment soap, and it’s as easy to use as any stain treatment. Just run the bar under water, rub it into the stain then wash as usual. For extra tough stains, gently work the soap in with a fingernail brush.
Bonus use: Fels-Naptha claims that the soap is also top-notch treatment to remove irritating, botanical-based oils from your skin like poison ivy and poison oak.
You can buy Fels-Naptha in the cleaning section of almost any grocery store.
Zipper Wax
A zipper that’s tough to zip can make a perfectly good pair of jeans unwearable. Zipper wax to the rescue! Dritz Ezy Zipper Glide looks like a clear crayon, but it’s slightly softer. (However, you could use a crayon in a pinch.) You just rub it into the teeth of each side of an unzipped zipper, work the zipper a few times and you’re golden. This is especially helpful if you have vintage clothes, which tend to have sticker metal zippers.
You can find zipper wax in most fabric stores as well as online.
Lint Brush
If you use a lint brush at all — which you should in dry Utah — you probably have a sticky roller one that resembles very wide masking tape. But lint brushes with the red, plushy pads actually remove lint and hair better (as long as you’re using it correctly), they’re better for the environment and you never have to spend time or money getting refills.
The fibers of the brush have a “nap,” meaning it feels rough when you move it in one direction and smooth in the other. The rough direction will collect the lint, and the smooth direction releases the lint when you need to clean the brush.
Lint brushes can be found in almost any store with a laundry section.
Press Cloth
Ironing clothes is a must for a put together appearance. But sometimes ironing can add shine to your clothes at the hems and seams, especially where dark woolens and polyesters are concerned. That’s where a press cloth comes in. Putting a thin piece of non-dyed fabric between the garment and iron when pressing will eliminate the risk of shine while still getting rid of wrinkles.
A white handkerchief works perfectly as a press cloth, but you can also buy mesh press cloths at fabric stores and online.
Lingerie Bags
If you avoid buying or washing certain items because they are hand wash only, you will love using a lingerie bag. Throw most delicates in the mesh bag and put it in the washing machine on gentle. The bag protects the items from getting sucked into or tangled on the agitator, which can stretch out or tear items like tights and bras.
Bonus use: If you have kids, wash and dry their socks in a lingerie bag to make separating clean laundry easier.
Lingerie bags can be found in almost any store with a laundry section.
