Tips for Uniform Care

Background: VF Corporation’s VF Imagewear division supplies uniforms to many major employers. In its first collaborative research project, the Clothes Care Research Center conducted a study to see if they could improve on VF Imagewear’s own finely researched care recommendations.

Following the tips below will help keep your khaki pants, knit shirts, and oxford-cloth shirts looking newer, longer:

Sorting

• For best results, wash workwear apart from your regular family wash.
• If workwear is washed with other household garments, then separate by color and wash with like items.
• Split workwear into these loads: 1) all whites, 2) pants, shorts, skirts and twill shirts, 3) colored polo/oxford shirts

Tips For Washing

• Do NOT overload the washer.
• To improve the feel and future washability of your workwear, wash with detergent once before wearing with like colors on the easy care, permanent press, or wrinkle-free cycle with warm water.
• Always pretreat stains with liquid detergent or other pretreating products.
• Pretreat collars and cuffs of all shirts each time they are washed to prevent body soil build-up (ring around the collar).
• For heavily soiled items, presoak from a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of overnight depending on the degree of the soiled area before initiating the wash cycle.
• All washing should be warm water wash and cold water rinse on easy care, permanent press, or wrinkle-free cycle.
• Do not use chlorine bleach product on colors. Use non-chlorine bleach when instructed by care cycle.
• Fabric softener such as Downy® may be used, but should not be used in both the washer and dryer.

Tips For Drying

• Before placing clothes in the dryer, check for stain removal. If stain removal is not complete on some garments, reapply pretreatment and rewash the stained items with at least a 15-minute presoak.
• Tumble dry on easy care, permanent press, or wrinkle-free cycle.
• Do not overdry.
• Remove clothes promptly from the dryer and hang or fold.

Tips For Ironing

• Press using easy care, permanent press, or wrinkle-free setting on iron.
• For 100% cotton products, use cotton setting on iron.
• Do not iron logos or emblems.

Copyright © 2008 Clothes Care Research Center™. 2005-1