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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Chlorine Bleach And How It Could Damage Your Embroidered Patches

By Timmy Motson


When it comes to clothing, one of the best ways to improve how they look is to apply embroidered patches. There are various reasons why embroidered patches are applied to clothing such as to identify with a particular group, to let others know about something that you believe in or to show support for a particular individual or event; no matter the reason, adding embroidered patches to clothing can really give them a certain appeal. But the truth is that you may encounter some problems when that item of clothing needs to be washed. Not only will you have to think about the washing instructions for the item of clothing, you will also have to bear in mind, the washing instructions for embroidered patches.

One thing that must never be used when washing embroidered patches is chlorine bleach. Chlorine can start to eat away at the threads and fibers of the fabric because it is such a caustic substance. If you have ever used chlorine bleach to wash your white socks, then you will probably have seen that the white socks tend to get holes much quicker than the dark colored socks that are not washed with chlorine bleach. When it comes to embroidered patches, the same thing tends to happen.

You will Notice Broken Threads and Colors That Have Faded

You will be significantly reducing the life of your embroidered patches by washing them in chlorine bleach. The colors on the individual threads will start to fade and then over time, they will simply break altogether. The patch will probably be beyond saving at this stage. You will then have to replace the patch with a new one.

It is best to choose a non-chlorine based product if you must use bleach when washing your clothing. Non-chlorine bleaches give you much of the same benefits as chlorine products yet without the harmful effects on fabrics and threads. You may find that non-chlorine bleach does not produce the same brightness as chlorine bleach but it is still better than not using bleach at all. Remember that you need to follow the guidelines on the packaging of the bleach if you are going to use it. Non-chlorine bleach should have no effect on your embroidered patches.

One Good Use for Chlorine Bleach

Before we end up throwing out chlorine bleach altogether, it's important to note that it does serve a valuable purpose with embroidered patches. It is something that can change the color of our patches if we want to do this. For instance, imagine that you had ordered a batch of patches for your company uniforms because you thought that the gold trim around the edge would look great with the beige shirts. However, when the patches arrive, you discover that the gold trim is far too bright and does not look well at all. If you want to tone down the gold trim before adding the patches to the uniforms, you could use chlorine bleach.

In order to do this, you would need to use a small craft paint brush. By using this small brush, you could apply the chlorine around the border while making sure that it did not come into contact with any other parts of the patch. When the color is sufficiently faded to your liking, run the entire thing under cold water in order to wash away the excess and neutralize the bleaching action. The patch will be ready to applied to the clothing once it has dried.




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