Care Instructions

Here are a few tips for taking the best care of your garments from The Heirloom Child.

1.     Spot cleaning is ideal.  If you need to machine wash, ALWAYS use a delicate, cold water wash cycle.  If you follow our instructions, there should be no concern for colors to bleed.  Our garments are incredibly well crafted, but keep in mind that they are cotton and carefully hand embroidered.  Treating our products delicately will help keep them in top form for generations.

2.     Dryer or no dryer?  The garments can go in the dryer, but . . . we always prefer to hang dry or dry our garments on a flat surface.  Why?  The spinning of the dryer and interaction with other garments can loosen the smocking.  Also cotton shrinks, even pre-shrunk cotton is still a natural fiber, so the less you expose it to heat, the better.

3.     To iron or not?  We have a trick.  If you iron a damp garment it acts as a steamer as well and the garment dries faster and usually requires no further ironing.  Also puffing out the sleeves while damp can give them a fuller look when dry.  Steamers also work well to remove any wrinkles!

4.     Stains?  What to do?  A mix of water and Oxyclean (or similar product) directly on a stain with a targeted rinse after 10-15 minutes is helpful without the risk of bleach.  If you stain a white collar, a bleach pen on just the affected area can be a lifesaver.  That said, a heavy handed use of bleach (even in a concentrated pen) can lighten the fabric surrounding the stain so be careful.

Hem or button issues?  Please keep in mind that our garments are hand crafted.  No matter how well the hems are done and the buttons are sewn on, they can come loose.  We recommend using just one or two simple stitches with matching or clear thread to repair a loose hem or button.