A commando sweater is one expensive piece of garment. It’s not your usual kind of sweater. It’s made of 100% high-quality wool and is designed to withstand harsh environments and last a long time. That is if you take care of it the right way. Learning how to wash commando sweaters the proper way will not only extend the life of your military sweater, but it will also make sure that it’s always in its best condition whenever you wear it.
How to Wash Commando Sweaters
Washing commando sweaters take a bit more care as compared to your regular clothing. If you notice, the tag would usually have symbols attached to it so you know if you should machine wash or have them machine dried or not. As for commando sweaters, you don’t machine wash nor do you machine dry. Here’s how to do it.
Hand wash. Do not machine wash.
Wool is a very sensitive type of fabric. The friction from your washing machine cycle will felt your wool. What’s worse the soap and heat will shrink the garment. Fuzz from the wool and also detach and can form hard clumps. Also, remember that commando sweaters don’t need to be washed frequently.
Soak Commando Sweater in Cold Water
First, dissolve some gentle cleaner in water so it doesn’t react with the wool. Make sure you don’t add too much product because soap can increase felting. You don’t want that. A tablespoon of detergent is enough for a large or medium-sized sweater.
Soak you commando sweater for 5-10 minutes before washing. Use cold water since hot or warm water will shrink the wool. If there are soiled areas, use a brush and do spot-cleaning. Again, use cold water to rinse.
Squeeze Suds Gently
Gently move the water and detergent through the fabric. Swish the sweater in cool, sudsy water until it is completely saturated. Remove the sweater from the basin after a few minutes of soaking and swirling.
Roll the sweater gently into a ball and squeeze out the excess water without wringing, rubbing, or twisting it. Wool stretches easily and loses shape, so use caution when removing excess water.
Rinse the Commando Sweater in Cold Water
Remove the water with detergent. Fill your basin with cold water again and gently rinse the commando sweater. Repeat the process until the water is free from the detergent lather.
Use a towel to remove excess Moisture
Once you are done rinsing, you can now remove the sweater from the water and start to dry your commando sweater. Never wring or hand dry. Wool stretches easily so that can damage it.
Hold the sweater by its shoulder so you can allow water to drain from it. To remove the excess water and moisture, place a dry and clean towel flat on the floor and put your damp sweater on top of the towel.
Roll the sweater into the towel from the bottom up until you have a sweater-towel tube.
Press down a few times to ensure the towel absorbs any remaining excess water, then unroll and re-shape. Squeeze and press gently before unrolling and let it dry flat on the surface.
Gently Pull your commando sweater into shape
Before you let it completely dry, you need to block it into shape. Blocking can preserve the size and even out the fabric. Get your damp commando sweater, spread it on a dry towel on a flat surface, smooth it out and coax the sweater to the desired shape and size.
Dry your commando sweater flat
Remember never to wring or twist your sweater. Let it dry flat in its natural shape. It may take some time to dry but if you want to speed up the process, a hack would be to get a large salad spinner to shake out the excess water and then let it flat to dry. Also, avoid drying your commando sweater in direct heat or sunshine.