Tuesday, January 5, 2010

All Puffed Up

I have two puffers, a navy sleek one for winter elegance (a cashmere sweater fits underneath it) and a light gold one for everyday wear. It’s the same color as this Moncler puffer, but infinitely more practical in cut. I wear it with a beige beret and my palomino Tecnicas.

Light gold for every day, however, is not necessarily practical, and, taking stock last yesterday, I realized that it was time for my puffer to take a dip.

Last night, as I put it into my washing machine, I glanced at the cleaning instructions on the tag.

Dry clean only, they said.

Silly, thought I, as I turned on the water. I’ve washed my daughters’ puffers, as well as duvets in my machine, and they turn out perfectly.

My jacket looked fine, too, until it came out of the dryer in puffy clumps. Alas, the down had redistributed itself in unpleasant ways.

But with advice from Town and Country Mom, and The Clueless Crafter, sage and gentle readers, I opened a can of tennis balls (yes, I am so lucky that my children play tennis) and popped them into the dryer avec puffer and turned the setting on low for about 30 minutes.

Much better.

I haven’t tried on the jacket yet, but think that all will be fine.

Thank you, sage and gentle readers!

8 comments:

Null said...

So glad the triage worked. I fear losing anything that may carry memories. Plus, a woman must look stylish. Cheers!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

I have a down vest which I wash in cold and dry on low with tennis balls as well....remove from the dryer immediately shake and hang...should be good as new. Like cashmere, down does not like the harsh dry cleaning fluids.
Hi from BC!

La Belette Rouge said...

My BIG puffer down coat I got from Eddie Bauer( for my Chicago days) came with tennis balls to put in the drier.

WendyB said...

You're brave! I'm all about the dry cleaning. Great color for a coat, btw.

M said...

Oh, I'm so glad the story had a happy ending after all! I was literally holding my breath reading it.

Yes, tennis balls are great for a lot of things. :)

Mary-Laure said...

I never thought I'd fall for puffy jackets but what can I say, it has happened. Especially when I look at that pic.

Angie Muresan said...

OMG!!! Miss C. this photo is so disturbing to me. Are her arms in there, at all?
So, I read this post twice as I couldn't tear my eyes too long from the image. But glad you got your puffy jacket fixed!

Elizabeth said...

I'm glad to hear you were able to salvage your jacket. I bet it was a real cacophony during, though!

Happy New Year!