Dry clean only mans suit - shall I wash it?

[glitterbiscuits]

I’ve never had to wash a suit before. It says dry clean only but I was thinking of a cool machine wash - will the jackets come out crumpled and awful? Dry cleaning sounds a bit of a con.

[iwishicouldbelikedavidwatts]

the outer and lining fabrics and any padding e.g. shoulders will likely shrink at differential rates. dry clean.

[glitterbiscuits]

With a user name like that Davidwatts I will take your advice seriously as I was singing it in the kitchen this morning.

[DramaAlpaca]

davidwatts has it. Definitely dry clean or you'll ruin it.

[Ohyesiam]

Yes, it’s th interfacing as David whatts says.
Off to listen to some jam .

[BikeRunSki]

What David said. I washed a very nice moleskin jacket once thinking “it’s just thick cotton, what could possibly go wrong?”. What went wrong was that the jacket shrunk a tiny bit, the shoulder wading shrank a lot, and the lining dangled about 2 inches beyond the sleeves and bottom of the jacket forever more.

[DontDribbleOnTheCarpet]

How expensive was the suit? I've risked it with cheaper clothes and it was fine. If you couldn't afford to replace it or it's pure wool or cashmere or something, then maybe not.

[glitterbiscuits]

Wool mix from Next. DS wears them to 6th form. He has a few on rotation.

DH only owns one suit and wears it for weddings and funerals so it’s still clean ( in his opinion).

I’m miles from a dry cleaners so I was trying to save the faffing about. But will grit my teeth and venture out of the village!

[Ivory200]

My DS wore John Lewis machine washable navy suits in 6th form (also comes in grey and black). Not too madly costly, nice quality, did v v well on hand wash programme, and air dried on hangers. At the end of 6th form was handed on to a younger boy in almost perfect condition. Wouldn't risk washing any ordinary suits

[Freshprincess]

No no no. I ruined exDH's dinner suit dong exactly that.

[yeahforsummer]

You can get dry cleaning sheets which you use in a tumble dryer. If it is cheap clothing you can try that. Otherwise dry cleaning is quite cheap.