mothercare pillows...

[bea]

with the hottest day starting (cue: shrieks of hysteria and mayhem from the media!) ... have decided to wash dd's pillow... as it should dry in no time at alll!!! theoretically - cue the biggest thunderstorm in the world!

has anyone washed these pillows before as i have a bad track record with washing regular pillows... they always come out all lumpy and i have to get rid of them!!!

the care instructions says that 40 deg wash should be okay... and then a load of washing symbols which i haven't a clue about!!!

advice needed to stop a washing disaster occuring!!!

ta!

I would love to know the answer to successful pillow washing, mine always go lumpy aswell and then get chucked out, maybe its because I tumbledry them

stick a couple of tennis balls in the tumble drier with the pillows - the tennis balls sort of pummel the pillows so they don't form any lumps when drying.
Its the only way..... works with soft toys as well!

ps also keep the drier quite empty so the balls can really bounce around. I'd say one pillow and nothing else except the tennis balls at a time.
HTH!

PPH - that's a great tip, thanks!

I always wash mine along with a bath towel - usually 2 pillows, 1 towel - as the weight of the wet towel falling around the washer gives the pillows a better wash, otherwise they get stuck in the same position and just rotate and don't get properly clean. (I always put a towel in with a load of poly-cotton sheets/duvet covers too, for the same reason.)

All my pillows seem to have a one-piece polyester filling and when they come out this is often twisted within the cover - then you have to do a kind of duvet-cover trick, find the corner of the polyester stuff, grip it with the appropriate corner of the pillow and shake, and keep doing it until all the corners are in place (takes much longer to describe than to do!) - do this while they're wet.

Then I air-dry them - on a radiator in the winter, on the line in the summer - and finish off in the drier, one at a time.

pph, in America the advice is to put a tennis SHOE in the drier with the pillows - also with eg down jackets - has to be clean of course but I have done it and it is incredibly effective (but very very noisy!).

My pillows always end up mis-shapen when I wash them... 'Fraid to say I ruined DS1's mothercare pillow and had to throw it away after washing, Bea...

I think it's a manufacturer's conspiracy - why don't they put zips on them and then you'd be able to reshape easily?

I love feather pillows, but can't use anymore as DH is allergic...

what is it about tennis do you think janh?!
I guess it is just something nice and heavy that can take the dryer without melting or leaking dye. I can see that a plimsoll-y type shoe would be even better than a tennis ball.. hmm might try that next time. you just want them to get nicely beaten up while they dry

oh dear... hoping to line dry so the tennis ball idea in tumble dryer doesn't really apply... although will keep it in mind in future as sounds like a very good idea!!!

oh Mo2.... what shall i do? your disaster has put me off now!!!

however i might just bite the bullet and do it!!! and dd will have to cope with a lumpy pillow until i buy a new one!!!... or maybe not!!!!

oh no what shall i do!

isn't my life sad.... my biggest quandry of the day is whether to wash dd's pillow or not!!!

bea, wash it and try the rearranging-the-insides-while-wet thing. Giving it a good smacking once the corners are in place helps too. (Not that I'm obsessive about pillows or anything....) If you still end up with a lumpy mess you can buy him a nice fresh new one!

pph, it must be the lovely virginal pristine WHITENESS of tennis things - though not the balls of course - hmmm - but then they did used to be! Hands up if you're old enough to remember white (grey) tennis balls?

Just me then.

Anyway a trainer does the job too. I do wash all ours in the machine, wouldn't tumble dry a wet one but a clean dry one would be OK.

(Must stop talking about bluddy laundry!)

Oops, her, sorry, bea...

Wash your child's Doodles shoes at the same time as the pillow. Kills 2 birds with 1 stone.

right! i think i will do it!!!

fingers crossed all!

will report the end result in an hour or two!

keep your fingers crossed!!!!

(unless i chicken out in the next few mins or so!!!)

well!... the stuffing inside did get all scrumpled up and no fiddling about and trying to find the corner was going to solve it so ... i decided to take the cover off and get the stuffing out... and make up a new cover which is removable for such washing occasions... the pillow is now back in its new cover.... air drying on the line and will be put in it's normal pillow cover at the end of the day forr dd's tired little head!!!!

thank you for all advice and so ends this saga!...

however what will happen when i put the big pillows in.... that will have to wait another day... i don't think i can take the stress!!!!

...... to be continued!!!......

Making a new removable cover is a great idea! What are these Mothercare pillows stuffed with though?

I was talking about big pillows, didn't realise yours was different, sorry, bea!

the pillow that i've got looks like the stuff that you use to stuff stuffed animals with... a great big swath of it rolled into a pillow shape like a swiss roll! (a flat swiss roll of course!)

is this the saddest thread or what??!

Hey! Here's the perfect new business opportunity - work from home making removable pillow covers.... you saw it on here first.... (where do I find a copyright symbol anyway??)

Very very sad - terminal I would say.

When they were babies the DSs had those lambskin fleeces (ours were both christened "sheepie" you're not supposed to use any more. They used to get a bit rancid but drying the skin part was a nightmare - can you believe that I used to get quite excited on warm windy days - and still say "ooh, a good sheepie drying day"...

Definitely terminal!