How do you 'wreck' clothes? - YouLookFab Forum

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How do you 'wreck' clothes?

Runcarla

Veteran

Between posts on white jeans and demoting worn out items, I got to thinking about how one actually 'wrecks' clothes. I'm not talking distressing from frequent wears, but 'accidents' - preventable or otherwise - that ruin a garment for day-wear.

For me, the biggest culprit was splashed cooking 'grease' that left a mark I could never get out. I wrecked a LOT of tops that way before I learned that wearing an apron resolved the problem! I ruined a pair of white jeans while eating a peach on the train and dropping the fruit in my lap! That was a stain I couldn't get out. More recently I tried to modify a garment that wasn't working for me, and made it worse. Both garments went into the waste bin before their time.

I've seen some appalling pilling on the DS's clothes from use of a backpack or messenger bag - enough that I consider what I wear when I know I'll be using a backpack. I'm also conscious of dye transfer (jeans, ugh!) and decorative rivets (tough on leather furniture) and zippers on bags (hard on hands/manicures.)

How do you 'wreck' your clothes? Do you have any garment safety PSA's?

General

73 replies

Latest reply was from crst

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Snags on sweaters and knits -- if there is a splinter or a loose nail in my vicinity, trust me to find it. :-/

Stains - yeah, I'm bad about using an apron while cooking, but I've also done stupid things like painting or cleaning ("oh but I'm just touching up this tiny little piece") in my good clothes.

Tripping and falling. Good lord, I don't know how I haven't broken more bones in my life -- I just did it again yesterday on the trail while running. Fortunately, this time no holes in my leggings! Just scraped up and bruised palms. Last time I wiped out walking down my driveway and busted a hole in the knee of my jeans.

JAileen

Veteran

I caught my watch on my Missoni poncho. That made me feel sick. I was able to stretch out the pull a little. Just the other day I was having lunch with friends and dripped something on my nanopuff vest. I was able to get the grease stain out with Dawn dish soap, so not wrecked, actually. I have an Eddie Bauer windbreaker and it has rubbing on the front from my binoculars, so not very nice looking anymore. Oh, speaking of watches, I’ve scratched and even cracked the crystal on watches I’ve had.

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Kate

Veteran

Snagging knit items. Grease stains while cooking; need to remember to wear an apron. I have them, I just forget about using one. I'm very guilty of doing "just a little something" out in the yard or in the house in my good clothes. You think I'd learn to go and change my clothes FIRST.

rachylou

Veteran

Snagging on door handles and drawer pulls! I had this eyelet dress and the perfect kitchen drawer pulls... my kitchen ripped it to shreds!

Coffee comes next. (I have a way of trying to do things with a coffee cup in hand. Just pour the stuff down my front. What is my prob?!)

Then vegetable oil at the bakery. That stuff will soak thru an apron and chef jacket! I really hate oil spots.

Julie

I know Angie has that super-power to keep white clothes pristine. I basically have the opposite of that. (A super-weakness? Every superhero needs one!) I don't usually spill much, but if I'm wearing a white shirt, you can be sure it will have a stain from raspberries or coffee or some other delicious thing, before I get a chance to head out the door in the morning. I have overcome this character flaw by not wearing white.

lisaflex

Veteran

clorox clean up with bleach! i cant even count how much stuff ive ruined with it!
drawer pulls in kitchen ripping/catching on things

MsMaven

Veteran

I have 2 indoor cats who hate to have their nails trimmed. I used to do it over days, but gave up. They hate going to the vet too, especially when I load them into the carrier. So I have problems with snagged knits and jeans. I try to wear older, less loved stuff around the house. I also snag knits outside while gardening.

Certain kinds of rayon or viscose knits attract salad dressing. I swear I never ever spill it on an easily washable top. This means something I might wear out to dinner is vulnerable. The EF silk knit tee shirts I used to buy? Everyone ruined by salad dressing or something similar.

I have problems with pilling under the arms on knits and where my bag hits on my hip. I avoid buying anything with acrylic in it because it pills when I just look at it.

I'm not sure how I do it, but I have spilled bleach on a couple of things.

Nice thread! Good to see I'm not the only one that seems to have problems keeping clothes pristine.

Roberta

Veteran

My work badge. If I wear the lanyard it swings and either snags or pills the fabric. And coming home starving so I cook in my work clothes - spaghetti sauce or oil. I did once successfully remove a blueberry stain from pale pink pants.

I also seem to drag my feet so the toe tips of shoes wear out super fast. Perhaps I hit the stair riser with my toes?

And I personally have to call BS on the whole "broken in" look on leather. I think it just looks scuffed and worn. I have one pair of stompy combat boots and even those i try to polish up regularly. (I realize I am a minority in this opinion.)

Anonymous

Snags on knits here too. And catching delicate knits or silks in the velcro of a winter jacket . Hosiery/tights being rubbed and snagged on the top edges of boots. Minute spashes/sprays of makeup on tops and pants I think it happens when I try to spurt out a blob of foundation onto my hand and it sprays mini molecules out into the air and right onto my pants or top. Grr.

always trying

Veteran

I sometimes have weird yellowish spots on things. Most recent was my fav white crop pants, and a fav light blue sweater. Neither of these garments had any known food spills, or anything i can account for. They just came out of the laundry that way..

rachylou

Veteran

Oh Velcro! Yes! That’s a dangerous weapon!

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Gah, yes, Velcro! Ugh.

Lucy

Veteran

I am not particularly rough on clothes, but I have caught something on a door handle twice in the last year - wrecked both! I don't recall ever having done this before in my life....

Becky

Veteran

It looks as though I'm in good company. Add me to those who stain with food/drink incidents as well as snag by catching fabric on anything remotely rough in texture.

Sal

Veteran

Spills or splatters of oil, sauce or even cleaning products....

Snags on chairs or benches etc....

It is certainly easy to do- and I am a bit absent minded often doing two things at once.

nemosmom

Veteran

Zippers on my jacket sleeves have snagged countless scarves and knits, I somehow managed to catch a jacket pocket on my lever door handle and rip in mostly off (my tailor has repaired it twice), and I always split the sole of my shoes from tripping over curbs. One of my favorites was the first time I wore a newly purchased pair of $200 light blue designer jeans. I felt an itch on the top of my thigh, and when I scratched it, it bled. Not only did peroxide NOT take the stain out, it left a white circular blob right on the spot. Now I try to buy expensive jeans secondhand for fear of ruining them.

I am why we can’t have nice things!!

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

Oh this thread is so validating! Snags, splatters, scratches - I change as soon as I get home to my home clothes and these are the reasons.

Jessikams

(website)

Veteran

Another stagger here. I snag on my own watch or jewelry, on door handles and cabinet pulls, and on the splintery old wood of my beloved studio desk.

Then there’s the cat snags, the food spills (living in China means lots of red oil splashed) and I even manage to sometimes stain clothes with my body moisturizer- I guess I don’t let it dry enough before getting dressed, and it leaves oily marks.

And paint from painting. And paint from construction sites. And wanton destruction from hotel laundry when on the road for long periods.

I need to make my peace with the fact that my clothes probably won’t last long no matter how much I try to baby them! I am a destruction expert.

carter

Veteran

Seat belts. When I was working, I was in and out of the car all day every day. My tops were pretty much destroyed by the end of the season.

SarahD8

Veteran

Cat claws.
Jewelry snags (esp earrings on scarves).
Oil spots from cooking.
And in the past month I’ve worn clean through the elbows in two different sweaters. Both elbows get thin but the right one goes first. I’m a lefty, so I figure I lean on my right elbow while writing (or, you know, more likely scrolling...) with my left hand.

Joy

Veteran

Safety tip...wear an apron for cooking and cleaning.
I usually wreck clothes by snagging on rings, watch, bracelet, bag hard wear, Velcro, you name it.
Occasionally there is a laundry incident. It might be something fading on other garments, beach where it was not intended, or something put in the dryer.

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

Snagging is one I do pretty frequently. And I trip over my own toes when I walk sometimes, so I have lots of shoes with scuffed toes. And, three weeks ago, I literally wrecked my blush trench coat by . . . having a little bike wreck. That's a first, and hopefully a last, though. It does remind me that I've wrecked a lot of running clothes by falling down, but that's not a problem now that I'm not running (at least for now--maybe I'll go back to it someday).

anchie

Veteran

Laundry incidents - perfectly fine things coming out of washer with little holes or few sizes smaller. Bleach ruining my lounge clothes. Foundation staines that are impossible to get rid off. Last item I ruined was one of my favorite silk scarves - I took it off and put it in my handbag and it got caught in a zipper. And shoes - I walk a lot and constantly damage them in the process.

RainB

Pretty much with food! While cooking and eating...sigh. The spices we use here certainly don't help matters either! And of course the fact that I can be really clumsy

LaPed

Veteran

Coffee and bleach, yes. Those are two biggies for me. Nobody's mentioned pine sap yet! Am I the only one who sits on logs?

I've also lost quite a few things to puppies. Once a puppy decides to chew on your stuff, it's all over.

Other than that, I usually manage to hang onto things long enough that I wear holes in the knees and elbows.

kkards

Veteran

years ago i had a "wood" desk at work that had one spot that was always catching my tops and snagging them...i tried taping it, and that would work for a while, and than bam the spot would bleed thru the tape...

Anonymous

All the above! Snags, stains, claws, shoe wear, and fabrics getting too thin after many washes.
Solution-to sit in a box all day?
Honestly it's just life. Life is messy and things wear out. Our bodies wear with age and lose muscle. Rubber car parts break down, even if the car sits in the driveway.
We need to enjoy our things while we have them, and accept their impermanence!

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Oh Sharan, that makes me feel better — I thought i was just incredibly klutzy that I’ve tripped and fallen several times over my seven years of running. Although I still have the old running capris with hole in the knee — you guessed it — at the ranch!

I really messed up a pair of bike shorts on RAGBRAI when I had my one and only bike wreck. I took them home and had them sewn back up at the busted seam, but that only got me a few more months’ use from them. At least my injuries were minor enough that I could ride the rest of the week!

Count me as another who destroys the toes of shoes. That is the first place my sandals show wear, and it’s often impossible to repair or hide.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I wear my shoes into the ground - and fast - because I walk a lot.

I don't wreck my clothes easily at all - accept for shoes. But I'm with Carter. BLASTED seatbelt.

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