cashmere baby clothes...must they really be dry cleaned??

[mamamila]

yes i know it was folly to buy them... but will they be ok if i carefully handwash?

i have marks and spencers cashmere which can even be tumbled so why do these baby clothes say dry clean only?

you have cashmere baby clothes???

eh?

cashmere baby clothes must be one-wear-only, surely?

depends on the quality and treatment of the yarn how much abuse cahsmere can take.
how dirty are they?

best for them is to drop them in a basin of water with the right dose of wool-appropriate detergent and leave to soak for an hour. Transfer to clean water. Transfer to more clean water. And again. Place flat on towel to dry. Do not rub, squeeze, wring, agitate or in any way muck about with.

but obv this will not get poo out

And yes it is folly.

My DS has John Lewis cashmere jumpers ('My First Cashmere' - lovely Christmas gift last year), which I wash on a wool wash with minimal powder then line dry, and are fine after nearly a year of this. I do try to get as much wear as possible out of them before washing though.

We live in a v.cold house so they're great for extra warmth without bulk, although I confess to taking them off him during dinner time to save washing!

dd1 had a couple of cashmere bits form The White Company which were fine in the machine on a delicate wool wash

they did both her and dd2, and are still going strong...

If your machine has a delicate wool wash/very low spin then use that. I've found it much better than handwashing for cashmere, actually.

Obviously mild non-bio detergent - the proteases in bio detergents gradually digest wool.

thanks for swift replies, i might brave the cold wool wash on machine, so at least my hands won't be to blame.
to be honest they're not actually dirty, i'm just paranoid that clothing builds up hordes of dust/ mites etc..(p3rdb!)so like everything to be freshly washed. i don't like idea of dry cleaning chemicals either

dd has a really soft ralph lauren cashmere all in one, it's lovely and cosy but she's a bit slippery to hold in it!

DS had a John Lewis cashmere hoodie (sale purchase) when he was a baby and I used to hand-wash it, no probs. And I don't think it is total folly to have one or two wee things -- it was light but lovely and cosy, and he had about 6 months' heavy use out of it. Never got spoiled by food or poo, thankfully, but the moths did get it in the end, which has sadly scuppered my plans to re-use it for DC2!

I've been lucky enough to receive 2 John Lewis baby cashmere hoodie jumpers for 2 years running. As nothing is sacred in my house they go in all 30 and 40 degree washes and come out beautifully. I do occasionally give them a bit of a tug when they come out of the machine to lengthen slightly but otherwise leave them to dry on the clothes horse.

We have loads of cashmere clothes and 2 shawls - all go in the wool wash with wool wash and are fine.
If you wanted them to last 2 children and maintain their plump loveliness then hand wash them, rarely.

Ideally you would put a small amoount of lanolin [some lansinoh you might have left over is great] into the wash to give the clothes some water repellent properties. Then dirt and milk etc just shake off and don't get absorbed into the fibres.