Corduroy is a beautiful textile made from cotton, and just like any other cotton material, it can be washed by hand or by machine.
Corduroy does not require special care and maintenance during washing. The only time you’ll come across serious warnings in corduroy care and maintenance is when heat comes into the picture, for example putting it in the dryer or ironing.
Below, we discuss everything you need to know about Corduroy care and maintenance!
What are the things to know about washing Corduroy?
When washing corduroy, there are key things to bear at the back of your mind to ensure that your cleaning exercise turns out successful.
Corduroy textile is a lint magnet. Because of this, if you wash it together with clothes that produce lint, the lint will deposit on the surface of the corduroy and become very difficult to remove.
You can try to remove the lint by washing the cloth all over again, and even adding vinegar into the mix to relax the fibers so the lints come off easily, but a decent lint removal is going to be an impressive feat to achieve.
So whenever you can, try as much as possible to avoid washing corduroy with clothes that produce lint.
Can you hand wash corduroy?
When it comes to the ways and techniques of washing corduroy, the fabric care label of the cloth should tell you exactly how to wash it.
Most corduroys are made up of cotton fibers, and so they can be washed the same way you wash cotton clothes, which is at home using hand or machine and a standard wash cycle with cold or warm water. No special detergent needed! Just your regular detergent would do!
There are some exceptions though, for example structured garments like suits and designer jackets, or garments having special finishing or embellishment on them that can be destroyed by hand or machine washing. These are typically required to be taken to the dry cleaners for proper care and maintenance.
Additionally, if you have a corduroy made with a blend of polyester, or made of 100% polyester, or even wool, then you have to be careful with the washing to avoid distorting the fibers or even shrinking them.
Go with the gentlest settings possible to avoid causing damage to the clothes. Best advice? Consult the care label for the proper instructions.
When it comes to the type of detergent you should use for your corduroy, nothing fancy actually. Just go for the regular detergent you’d normally use on cotton clothes, and when it comes rinsing, do so with a clean fresh water to remove the suds and dirt that hide in between the spaces that separate fibers and make them look less clean after washing.
Can you wash corduroy with jeans?
You can wash corduroy with almost any kind of cloth, provided the cloth does not bleed and the corduroy does not bleed also. Color transfer in the washer will cause your corduroy to become ruined and messed up. You don’t want that happening!
So how do you know whether or not a cloth bleeds? It’s very easy, you need to perform a spot test on it. Get a cotton swab and moisten it with water. Then dab it over an inconspicuous area of the cloth and observe if there is color transfer from the cloth to the cotton swab.
If there is, avoid pairing the cloth with anything, until after many successive washes that renders the cloth bleedless. If not however, feel free to pair with your favorite Courduro that doesn’t bleed in order to save time and detergent.
How to dry corduroy?
When it comes to drying Corduroy, it’s pretty much the same way you dry cotton clothes— air dry or use the dryer.
For machine drying, put it in the dryer at low to medium heat. Make sure to shake the cloth well before putting it in the dryer to prevent the formation of wrinkles which would prompt you to want to place an iron on it.
Does corduroy shrink in the dryer?
Corduroy does have the potential to shrink in the dryer when it’s made with polyester or cotton/polyester blend. Polyester has a natural tendency to shrink when submerged or exposed to high heat. Wool? To even low heat! So if you dry your Corduroy made from wool or polyester at high temperatures, expect shrinkage to occur with time.
How often should you wash corduroy?
Cleaning corduroy is not a matter of how often, it’s a matter of need!
When your clothes are visibly dirty or are smelling pretty bad, you wouldn’t want to keep them sitting in the bin for one more day! Wash them as soon as you can!
If you have a collection of dark corduroys, limit the way you wash them by rotating smoothly between them in such a way that you don’t completely degrade their freshness before jumping onto the next one, this way, you won’t have to wash them after every wear or two wears!
In case you didn’t know, dark Corduroys fade with time when washed consistently. You can use detergent like Woolite dark to help preserve their intensity for much longer durations.
How to clean white corduroy
Treat white corduroys the same way you would treat other white fabrics. Do not pair them with any other colors except white.
Pairing whites with other colors has the potential of damaging the cloth completely especially when the cloth you’re pairing with the corduroy is one that runs off colors.
You can also decide to use bleach, preferably chlorine bleach, especially when you have a visible stain you want to get rid of.
Can you wash corduroy hats?
Always check the care label of your hats to learn how to clean it, and if it says that you are free to put it in the washing machine or submerge in water to wash by hand, then do so. If not, take it to the dry cleaners.
The cheapest way to actually maintain your hats is to make sure your air dry them between successive wears. Doing so will extend the wearable lifespan of your hats by a mile. And if it takes longer for your hats to go into the washer, it only means they will last longer!
Can you wash corduroy sofa covers?
Absolutely, you can wash Corduroy sofa covers in the washer or by hand. Just follow the same procedure as you would for Corduroy clothes.
Final Thoughts
Despite the impressive wales on cotton Corduroys that make them look very delicate, they can actually be washed the same way you would wash any cotton clothes.
But that’s for cotton corduroy, for those of polyester blend, you want to use a lower wash setting than cotton, preferably the settings of polyester which is the more fragile and sensitive of the two.
And if your corduroy is made up of anything outside cotton, then make sure to strictly abide by what is printed on the care label to avoid causing damage to the cloth.
