Fabrics Sometimes Not Fit for Purpose

Home & Living
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Following on from topics about washing, sanitising clothes, and a recent experience with some pillow cases, it makes me wonder if modern fabrics are mostly or rarely fit for the purposes for the garment/products they are used for.

An obvious topic

leads to resources suggesting 50C to 90C is appropriate for towels, generally the hotter the better, BUT many modern towels specify to wash in warm water, usually taken as 30C to 40C.

Pillow cases labelled as ‘hotel luxury’ by a major brand implies what was taken as also robust, eg ‘hotel quality’ not just ‘hotel luxury’ although in retrospect they are different claims. We have 20 year old pillowcases that have not measurably shrunk. we have some in the 5 year range that shrunk 2~3%, and more recently some that shrunk 10~11%, all from the same washing and drying regimen. A maximum of 5% seems reasonable. A discussion regarding the 10~11% is in progress with the retailer/manufacturer.

Checking experiences with clothes, as with pillow cases some have not measurably shrunk, some shrunk to become too small, and some shrunk and twisted because of fabric characteristics.

Tumble drying is the obvious differentiator noting the temperatures reached in sensor, condenser, and heat pump models is quite different, as well as the temperatures for ‘low’ so a consumer might buy nice things that are impractical/difficult to care for without causing shrinking or worse.

Manufacturers disclaim responsibility when an item is tumble dried, but especially in the Melbourne and Tassie areas if one did not use a dryer on many days some things could stay on a line until spring arrives, so what is the choice (no pun intended).

Some bedding from the same manufacturer changed over time. Both specify ‘may be tumble dried warm’ in text but the standard icon on one has the single dot (low heat) and the earlier one the double dot (medium heat). Not that dryers readily help translate those directives to their control panels.

No assistance sought, just calling out the need to take ever more notice of the care instructions. Choice published a great overview

What is not mentioned up front is it is on us consumers to assure products we buy has fabric fit for purpose as the individual consumer will use and care for them. The manufacturers have other goals such as softness, look, and feel to entice us to buy the product; what happens after it gets washed seems to be off their radar as long as they put it on their car labels.

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It is becoming increasingly more difficult to determine the best way to wash, dry, and iron fabrics so that shrinking or stretching can be prevented or limited.
In days gone by we knew that natural fibres like cotton would shrink after every wash and scorch under a too hot iron, and that synthetics would often stretch after every wash and melt under the hot iron. Nowadays there’s lots of blended fabrics and even new fibres made from plants and trees. The stretching and the chemical treatments start early in the manufacturing process, and we can only hope that by following the ‘how to care’ label we might be safe :wink:

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I used to work in quality control for a major catalogue firm in the Uk many many many years ago. Australia may or may not have caught up but judging by the number of recalls I suspect there is minimal testing.
Shrinkage was always a major problem on cotton items and seems to be alleviated with the addition of polyester. So as a guideline manufactures should allow 10% for shrinkage in sizing sheets made from cotton.
Acrylic which I suspect is added to a lot of fabrics, stretches sideways, think baggy t shirts and jumpers which expand sideways and shrink upwards.
Fabrics that pill have synthetics added! Wool and natural fabrics shed (fibres detach completely) so if you have a woollen jumper that’s pilling look again at the label.
Garments sewn with synthetic thread may pucker due to difference in shrinking of fabric and non shrinking of thread and vice versa with cotton thread and synthetic fabric.
If you are unhappy maybe a phone call to the quality control department is in order.
We used to get manufactures samples and then test them against a sample from received orders. So many orders were not as specified it wasn’t funny. So retailers were being cheated on price, because believe it or not the quality was never higher than specified!

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I misunderstood you were talking about washability when you mentioned fit for purpose. One bugbear I have is that tee shirts, and other items, but tee’s in particular, seem to have a very short life expectancy, and wear thin very quickly, My wife just returned from Thailand with a bunch of tee shirts for me and our son, which are much thicker and better quality material than most of what you can buy here. Of course they cost more, but I think it’s just better value. I have a few tees that I don’t wear that often - the ones I keep for those “special occasions” where a superior tee shirt is appropriate… and they certainly last well. I still have my commemorative Harley Davidson centennial World Tour tee shirt from about 10 years ago, though the writing is quite faded now. They’re just a nice memento of a special occasion in the past. I was sad to see my Eric Clapton Australian Tour tee shirt has now been relegated to wiping down the clothes lines - I’ll have to keep closer watch of where they are going.

The other aspect of “fit” that troubles me is size. All my life I was no more than a Mens or Large. But now, with most everything coming from China or other Asian countries at breath takingly low prices, I seem to have swollen to an XXL, despite my measurements remaining (approximately) the same.

I better stop before I move onto insurance industry and the race to the bottom there.

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Another area of fabrics not fit for purpose is the tea towel… They used to ALL be thirsty and good at drying. Now they are nearly all useless at best and hydrophobic at worst. I HAVE found one place to get the holy grail of the thirsty tea towel though. :sunglasses:

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Assuming this is not your business, where?

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We go through a lot of tea towels. The best we have found at a reasonable price is…

Only downside is they stain relatively easily.

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Wheel and Barrow. They are a little more expensive, but really good quality and so thirsty! You have to ask for the thirsty ones though. They still sell the others.
and no that isn’t my business!

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The care instructions on Target’s website says: cold wash, don’t bleach.
Also the Wheel&barrow ones are to be washed in cold water at a gentle cycle and no bleaching or whitening.
Then, how to get rid of the hard to remove coffee, tomato, etc., stains on the tea towels?

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Tomato stains bleach out under sunlight, it is pretty fast at doing so. UV light bleaches a lot of stains, but best to treat by washing and hanging out to dry as soon as possible.

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That beautiful tip of whitening linen in the sun is indeed a tried and true method, I’m reminded of the narrative in Homer’s The Odyssey (c.7th century B.C.) where the princess Nausicaa and her maids go to the sea shore to wash clothes (that chore was seen as a sacred rite of purification worthy of royal daughters) they “…spread the washing out in rows on the shore of the sea…” and then they have a picnic and play ball games. Their laughter awakens shipwrecked Odysseus…

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…is challenging in some parts of the land, especially when the area exposed to it (when there is any) is covered in vegetation.

Many may not be aware but the fabrics used in ‘locally available’ products vary across the globe. In the USA virtually everyone uses a tumble dryer and the vast majority of products are made with fabrics that suit , have little shrinkage, and last. Locally they are made with what I presume are cheaper more fragile fabrics that require line drying even if it takes days (eg Melbourne winters).

The difference is evident in everything from sheets to clothing with exceptions for speciality products like bikini’s not meant to be worn near water.

Do others buy things a few sizes big to account for the inevitable shrinkage? Are they usually successful in buying ‘big enough’? In the case of king size pillow cases there is no bigger size to buy for excessive shrinkage but buying USA targeting pillow cases works a treat.

Experience shows there is no discernable difference between local products and robust USA sourced ones for line drying either. Put both in a tumble dryer and it can be dramatic.

I wonder if more robust fabric were used how much would it increase prices, and if it would even minimally address the end sizes (after washing) of clothing (that starts with a guess as to what size one needs).

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Given a choice between the sort that absorb water and stain and the ones that that are water and stain repellent, I will take absorbent.

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Just for the sake of argument: why should we have to choose, what makes a more absorbent fabric easier to stain, and why as the care labels say cold water gentle wash no bleach or whitening, are stained tea towels the new black?:wink:

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Fibre that grabs water better also grabs stains better. Both adhere to surfaces and soak in as well, adsorption and absorption. Water in the staining liquid and the washing up water will both evaporate in time but the former leaves solids that are coloured and look stained. Oils can also carry coloured substances (the orange colour from tomatoes for instance) but these tend not to evaporate much.

Stain removal may be physical as in soap or detergent removing oils or solids, there the staining substance is removed. It can also be chemical by bleaching or by pH change which convert the coloured stain substance into a colourless (or less coloured) one. There the staining substance is not necessarily removed.

Surface treatments on cloth that defeat staining coat the fibres to prevent sorption, this excludes water too.

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The ‘solution’ seems to be choosing tea towels that include one or more each of ‘tea brown’, ‘tea black’, ‘espresso’, ‘sauce red’, and similarly tinted colours. :laughing:

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100% cotton is considered to be a good, absorbent, strong fabric for general use and especially for towels. How then do we explain the care label more suited for wool, silk, delicate items? If it can’t take hot water, a strong washing cycle and any form of whitening, useful for stain removal, it’s doubtful it could even stand being exposed to UV rays without being damaged. How did a strong fibre like cotton become so fragile?

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All our towels go onto a wash together, normal cycle warm water and optionally the drier after hanging on the outside line to mostly dry.

The colours progressively fade. Better a towel, tea, bath or hand that is still soft and moisture capturing than store display perfect for colour. There’s some logic in hospitality, aged care etc preferring white on white with white for such items. Includes the premium as well as everyday establishments.

If it’s blue jeans etc, I’ve some that still fit the same after ten years and others that started a size above and now present as a size too small.

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I use linen tea towels. Linen is very absorbent, leaves no lint, dries relatively quickly between uses, and lasts for years and years. l have 2 in use throughout any given week, wash them at 40C (and iron them, because I like them crisp!) and they only start to wear thin after at least 5-6 years, depending on quality of the fabric - I’ve had some used every week that have lasted over 10 years. When the thin areas finally become holes, I cut them up and re-hem to make smaller dusting/polishing cloths and get a few more years of use out of them. I do still have some cotton ones, but after a couple of uses they are disgustingly soggy and take forever to dry (unless I put them in the oven while it’s cooling) - yuk!

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Is this the one you’re talking about?

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