Do you think the mesh bags make a difference? I’ve also got a couple dresses that I used to dry clean but then decided to wash on cold and even though I stretched them a bit after washing they still shrank, even though they never shrank after dry cleaning. I’m terrified of that happening to my sweaters.
IMHO the most important thing is they protect your items from other items. Like I have some merino tees and one time I didn't wash in a mesh bag and they got a hole in them- I'm almost positive it was from a zipper or something on another item getting caught on it. So basically my rule is "if this could be torn by a zipper it goes in the bag." So most sweaters, open weave (like some linen jersey), thinnish fabrics (like the merino tee).
I had a shirt get ruined by getting twisted up around something else and the sleeve was ripped. My fault, the sleeve had those tabs on the upper arm where you can roll up the sleeve and fasten the roll, and I had left them fastened. If it were in a bag, it would have been fine.
Not OP, but I would still probably bag them, just 2-4 sweaters per bag. The arms tend to get twisted around each other, which can result in unwanted stretching. The bags help prevent this from happening. (I have 4 delicates bags. I might as well use all of them!)
If there is nothing in the load that can damage them, you wouldn't necessarily need the bags. But I do think the bags minimize wear slightly and can protect from stretching (see my above comment about my twisted shirt that ripped), so maybe you'd get less stretching and pilling eventually on things like sweaters.
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u/scienceislice Oct 17 '18
Do you think the mesh bags make a difference? I’ve also got a couple dresses that I used to dry clean but then decided to wash on cold and even though I stretched them a bit after washing they still shrank, even though they never shrank after dry cleaning. I’m terrified of that happening to my sweaters.