When I started this bloggy thing, I never expected it to be a place where I bared my soul. But I’ve made a few confessions here that most ladies wouldn’t share amongst friends, let alone strangers.
But you know how they say, ‘confession is good for the soul’? Well, here goes another one:
I bought my first down jacket about two years ago on a ski trip to gorgeous Queenstown in New Zealand. It was a memorable week when the town was blanketed from a massive snow dump and with the airport closed for a week, the mountains in white-out, the Speight’s running low – what else could a gal to do but go shopping!
So here’s the confession bit … I washed it for the first time about 3 weeks ago.
I’d like to argue that it was because the manufacturers say to only wash when necessary or that as long as my multiple base layers underneath the jacket are washed regularly (they are), then that justifies it. But the truth is that I was nervous about washing it! I’d never owned such a puffy delight before and was scared that I was going to ruin it.
Well, check out my video for step-by-step instructions on How To Wash a Down Jacket and see me conquer my down washing demons!*
Here’s the rundown:
- Follow the manufacturers instructions
- Use ‘Pure Soap flakes‘ – (It’s a bit of an old fashioned product and one I’d never used before. When I opened the box, I was struck by the childhood memory of the smell of my Nanna’s laundry).
- Work to the instructions on the pack
- Dissolve 1 and a 1/2 cups of soap flakes in boiling water
- Add mixture to a bath 1/3 full of warm water
- Immerse the garment fully in the water, give it a good swish
- Soak for 10-15 mins
- Drain the bath and rinse the garment thoroughly, 2-3 times in cold water, until the suds disappear
- Lay flat in the sun/freshair to dry in its natural shape
- Place in clothes dryer for 2 cycles to ensure it’s fully dry and down has fluffed up again
I cheated a bit with some extra tips:
- Put in the spin cycle of your washing machine after the bath to remove excess water before drying flat outside.
- Add 2 tennis balls to the dryer to help create movement and extra fluffiness amongst the down inside.
*That’s 1 1/2, one and a half, one point five, 1.5… not 15 cups!
