African Print Fabric – 3 Tips to Care for Your African Print Fabrics
There are so many beautiful African print fabrics, including wax prints, available that can be turned into a variety of unique and amazing fashion pieces. Using an African print fabric to express your creativity, in terms of a skirt, blouse, jacket, or more, can be fun. At the same time, you do not want to do anything to ruin this fashionable fabric piece. Therefore, before you start adding multiple African print fabric pieces to your wardrobe, here are 3 tips that you need to know to care for your African print fabric and thus keep them looking beautiful for as long as you own it.
First Tip – Test It!
Before you wash your African wax print fabrics, it is important to test the material’s color fast properties. Dampen a piece of white fabric and then press it against the wax print fabric, using an iron to slowly dry both pieces. Once they are both dry, then pull the cloths apart. If your white cloth does not have any color on it, then you can wash that African print fabric garment with other clothes, because the color will not bleed onto your other fabrics.
However, if the white cloth has received color from the African print fabric, then you want to be sure that you wash it separately from any of your other items to avoid having color transfer onto other pieces of clothing. That being said, testing does not guarantee that color bleeding or transfer will not happen from time to time. Therefore, you might want to consider making it a regular habit to just wash your African print fabric pieces in a separate load. Read on in tip #2 to learn how to wash them at home to keep them in the best shape possible!
Wash Them Yourself
If your African print fabric is ready to be washed, then use the washing machine to clean it with a mild detergent. The cycle should be on the non-spin cycle and the temperature of the water should not be more than 30 degrees. The reason is that if the water temperature is too hot, it could end up causing the color to bleed or create issues with the wax that is still on the African print fabric. Additionally, these fabrics are 100% cotton, which means that you are going to risk shrinking if you wash them at too high a temperature. If you only have one or two pieces, it might even be more advantageous to hand-wash them to avoid any issues.
Even if you have done the test mentioned in the first tip, you might want to err on the side of caution and keep your African print fabrics in a separate load from your other fabrics.
Once you have washed it, then you should avoid putting it in the dryer. Instead, use the line drying option to let them air dry. Secure your fabrics to the line with pegs or clip fasteners to avoid leaving any marks on your African print fabric. Once it is completely dry, iron it upside down so that you avoid damaging your African print fabric.
By walking through this process, you can take care of any of your African print fabrics right in the comfort of your own home. However, you might also want to opt to make it less time consuming. Read on to tip number 3, which can help you to do just that!
Take Advantage of Professional Cleaning
If you do not want to take on the additional work to clean and maintain your African print fabric, then you can take advantage of professional cleaning services. Taking advantage of this option can be a great way to get a large quantity of your African print fabric washed in a timely fashion.
A word of caution before you send your African print fabrics out to a professional cleaner, make sure they have experience working with these fabrics, so you can avoid having them ruined. You would be surprised how many dry cleaners do not have experience in cleaning African print fabrics. Therefore, if you do not ask, you might end up getting back ruined garments because they just followed their normal procedure.
Regardless of how you wash them, recognize that the fabrics will be stiff when you first receive them. Overtime, the washing will help to soften them up. There are also fabrics softeners that can be used to speed the up the process but be sure that they are gentle enough to use with the African print fabric.
Our large selection of African print fabrics and clothing gives you plenty of options to grow your wardrobe. Contact us today to check out the latest options available.
AKN Fabrics is recognized worldwide for selling the highest quality African fabrics and textiles at low prices. With new designs arriving daily, we always have a great selection of African fabrics and textiles to choose from.