How to: Don or doff and fine wearable pullover

When I was about 10 or 12 yrs. old my dad gave me a real treat. He took me to Brooks Brothers and bought me an fine Aran sweater. At the time dad's salesman took a few mins. to teach me how to put the sweater on and take it off. The process is similar to the act of "prestaging" your socks so as not to pull the threads too tight and inch your socks on with out pulling and yanking.

Once schooled in the process it became in-grained and to this day to remove an top I push my sleeves up some, hike the skirt of my tops up a few inches and bend forward than reach with both hands behind my head and pull. This all seems like over kill? Not really, I've still got that sweater and it is not blowout or broken down.

This works well for long sleeve wool tops that are not full zip such as the AWESOME Wabi Woolen LS tops I've got. Especially when they are wet from a hard workout they want to stick to my skin and it take some care to properly take them off.

Why are we talking about this? Becuase I was taught how to properly wear and care for my clothing and the subject is not mentioned enough.

Talk to me.

So, throughout your entire life, you could never wear this sweater on dates? God forbid everything goes well. "Um, would you mind not tugging on this? I'll take it off myself. Thank you." Awkward.

Kidding.

There are a few things I do to keep clothes nice a little bit longer. One is to never rub a good fabric with another fabric. To protect your nice fabric, like your suit, wait to some goop to dry before brushing it off with a garment brush. If you don't have a garment brush on you, use another part of the same garment. The idea here is that no two fabrics are the same; one is always going to be more coarse than the other. Rubbing two fabrics together is a good way to quickly wear out the finer one.

Another thing I do when traveling with nice clothing is to separate items with craft paper or tissue paper. Putting layers of paper between garments keeps things like odor from transferring from garment to garment inside the suitcase, resulting in unnecessary laundering or dry cleaning. It is also a good idea to pack thing like belts separate, or wrapping the buckle in paper. Baggage handlers are not known for being gentle with your luggage. And harder objects like belt buckles can quickly wear away at the fabrics in your suitcase. The paper can be kept in the suitcase for multiple uses.

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Originally Posted by chasea

<snip>Another thing I do when traveling with nice clothing is to separate items with craft paper or tissue paper. Putting layers of paper between garments keeps things like odor from transferring from garment to garment inside the suitcase, resulting in unnecessary laundering or dry cleaning.<snip>

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Brilliant, thank you.

As much as I try to avoid doing so, I inevitably end up acquiring plastic shopping bags from various stores. When traveling, I use these bags to organize and separate my clothing within my suitcase, or Bailey Works Whalemouth as I did this past weekend. Clothes are folded to a uniform dimension, stacked, and dropped in to a plastic bag, and then the bags dropped in the luggage. As clothes are worn or soiled, I then separate the dirty and the clean in to separate bags. Dirty clothes dropped in the hamper upon returning home, clean go back in the dresser.

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Originally Posted by EddieBirdsell

As much as I try to avoid doing so, I inevitably end up acquiring plastic shopping bags from various stores.

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A plastic bag or two is good for traveling with dirty clothes. Use (and re-use) the paper and use the plastic bags for walking the dog.


Got a spare 18 mins? Really, REALLY curious how to pack a suitcase? Can't sleep and need something to knock you out?

This demonstration is a bit lengthy, but does a good job of showing how to correctly pack a suitcase so that there is little to no impact on the clothing. I stray from some of these techniques and use less tissue paper for personal packing.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McB9f6dETL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp1yTDmIgVw

I have my own theories on packing jackets in suitcases. But I'll save that for another time.

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Originally Posted by chasea

...use the plastic bags for walking the dog...

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ashamed to admit it but this is exactly what i do on occasion
take the world's most biodegradable natural substance
and discard it inside the least biodegradable material

This is great stuff.

I have to say, it was not my intent in signing on to a bicycle site to learn things about taking care of my clothes. And, being a member here has had an impact in the quality of my kitchen, my bathroom, (razor blades) my shoes, etc.

I am grateful to be surrounded by enthusiasts/aficionados of the finer things in life.

As for packing suitcases, I use the plastic garment bags that my cleaner uses for shirts, to pack shirts slacks, etc. I find that these bags, unlike others, are slippery. Whatever position the clothes are in when they go into the bag is the position in which they come out. I have no added wrinkles when I unpack. For suits I use the zippered bags that one gets with a new suit from a reputable tailor or high end store. This gives ample protection to the clothes.

Shoes go in plastic bags from the grocery store (dont have a dog)

Has anyone found a solution for transporting a safety razor in a carry on bag? I expect one could get through 10 times but that eleventh, landing somewhere and needing to shop for blades would be unfortunate.

thanks

D.H., you can not travel with safety razor blades unfortunately. Just have to stop and pick up a pack where you travel or pack in your checked luggage. TSA guys get all excited every time they see my DE razor.