If you’ve just started dance (or if you’ve just started doing your own laundry), you might not know

how to handle all those dirty tights and leotards.

Since you probably have something to do that’s more fun than laundry, you might be tempted to throw everything into one giant load, and hope for the best. But your dancewear (not to mention your regular whites!) won’t survive this kind of abuse for very long.

If you want to get great life out of your dancewear, follow these guidelines on caring for your basic tights and leotards.

Caring For Your Tights

You know just from wearing tights that they’re easy to damage. If you toss them in the washing machine with your regular clothes, the buttons, zippers, and agitation that your tights encounter will wear them out faster than a season of classes.

Hand Wash

The best way to care for tights is to hand wash them. This will help them hold their shape for a long time.

When hand washing your tights, use cool or warm water, as hot water can damage the elasticity. When you hand wash, add your detergent to the water, following the directions on your detergent bottle to see how much you should use. Look for stains, and pre-treat them according to your detergent’s directions.

Immerse your tights in the water, and gently rub them together, working out any stains. Then, rinse them in cold water until all of the suds are gone. Finally, roll your tights into a ball and gently squeeze–don’t twist them to wring out the water.

Although most laundry detergents are fine, you might want to wash your tights in a detergent that is specially formulated for delicate clothing. Brands like Woolite are made to help delicates hold their shape and color through lots of wearing and washing.

Machine Wash

It’s best to wash tights by hand. But, if you can’t spend that much time in the laundry room, you can machine wash your tights in a lingerie bag.

A lingerie bag will shield your tights from the zippers and buttons on other garments, and it’ll protect them from the washer’s harsh agitation and spinning.

When you wash your tights in a lingerie bag, you should set the washing machine to use the gentle cycle and cold water. When they’re clean, promptly remove your tights from the washing machine and from the lingerie bag–don’t let them sit in the washer all night.

If you don’t have a lingerie bag, you can buy one online or in almost any store that sells tights and other hosiery. It’s a small zippered bag made out of a fine mesh, which allows for the movement of water and suds.

Drying

Although you can use a machine to wash your tights, you should never use one to dry them. The heat from a dryer will break down the tights’ elasticity. (Though if this happens, you could always turn them into a frisbee or use them in your garden.)

To dry your tights, always hang them or lay them flat. If you use a wooden drying rack, be careful–I know from personal experience that tights will sometimes snag on the wood.

Caring for Your Leotards

Wash your leotards in the same way you’d wash your tights. Again, if you machine wash your leotards, use a lingerie bag, the gentle cycle, and cold water.

Drying

The care tags on some leotards say that you can machine dry on a low tumble cycle. But really, it is best to dry a leotard by hanging it up or by laying it flat. Your leotard’s stretchiness (from materials like nylon and spandex) just won’t stand up to the dryer’s heat for very long. Even if the tag says that you can tumble dry on low heat,

your garment will hold its shape and color much longer if you let it air dry.

Ironing

Although you probably won’t be tempted to iron your tights, you might consider ironing your leotard. Don’t do it–an iron can melt nylon and spandex.

Even if your leotard looks wrinkled, it’ll smooth out once you put it on. If you absolutely must do something to remove the wrinkles, steaming is your best option. But, if you hang your leotard immediately after washing, wrinkles shouldn’t be a problem.

How Often Should You Wash?

Unless you love to do laundry, you’ll probably only committ to washing on one day each week. But if you get enough tights and leotards to last through a week’s worth of classes, it’ll be easy to wash all of them at once.

Although you can wear a leotard more than once before washing it, that’ll be your personal choice! You’ll have fewer items to wash, but they’ll be quite a bit dirtier.

Images:

• by elaine faith on Flickr
• by Charlyn W on Flickr
• by Mouse on Flickr