Bamboo Care Instructions

Bamboo is an all around amazing fabric! It is incredibly soft, elastic, and breathable. Its also more sustainable than most other types of fabric, with very few fabrics outpacing it in terms of low environmental impact. It also dyes incredibly bright and, when treated well, can retain its colors and continue to hold its value from one child to the next.

Of course, you can simply be sure to

  • Wash in Cold Water on a Quick, Delicate Cycle
  • Hang Dry for Best Results (or Tumble Dry Low/Cold if in a humid climate where it may take more than 24-48 hours to hang dry)
  • Use Only a Gentle Detergent made for Cold Wash
  • Use a Stain Remover before Washing

If you wish, but for the best possible results keep in mind that:

Bamboo fabric is also screen printed, and if you follow these care instructions you can reduce the chances of pilling and fading in even the darkest colors.

As with any fabric, the less times it is run through the dryer the better - though some bamboo owners have said that they just throw their bamboo in the normal wash with no issues. If you're one of these people please share your secret! 

For the rest of us (anyone like myself, who's general laundry tends to include rough materials such as dog beds, horse blankets, and more than a little hay and shavings :p) here's some highly recommended habits to keep your attire looking fresh and new through many, many wears:

  • Always wash your bamboo clothing inside out to protect the outer fabric and colors
  • Wash your clothing on the coldest setting, preferably on the Delicates cycle, for a short time to prevent sitting in water too long
  • Wash only with like fabrics - I usually wash all bamboo together in one short timer
  • Use a SMALL amount of gentle, dye free detergent, and feel free to skip the softener - bamboo generally doesn't need it, and either too much detergent, harsh detergent, or softener can leave odd looking water stains on your fabric if you aren't careful!
  • Hang to Dry - While you can, and many people do, tumble dry their bamboo on a low/no heat, I have had better results hanging mine to dry. Studies show that drying even on a low heat tears the fibers more quickly, causing pilling and tears. Your lint trap is full of small pieces of torn up fibers from your clothing every time you dry them. If possible, its definitely worth it to find a place in your home to hang dry your bamboo, though depending on the humidity it can take as much as 48 hours for regular closing and as much as 72 hours for sleep sacks (which you should be sure to turn inside out when the outside feels dry to the touch, so it dries evenly). If you find yourself worrying that hang drying is taking too long and you're concerned about risks for mold and mildew you can do a quick cold dry to get out most of the moisture before hanging but keep in mind this also can increase the risk of pilling.
  • Don't soak your bamboo! I made this mistake and it definitely created a lot of fading issues on my dark rompers. My kiddo got food stuck to a favorite and I left it in a bucket to soak and soften up so I could remove it - results were not what I was hoping for. Soaking also causes the fibers to tear, making the fabric rougher and more prone to pilling.
  • Don't scrub if you don't have to! Invest in a product like Puracy, spray on the messiest parts, let sit for 15 minutes. Come back and rinse with cold water, or put directly into the wash - this has successfully removed everything from my husband's coffee to my daughter's beet and apple puree without leaving even a single trace. (Less luck with grass stains, please advise if you know the secret to that one)
  • Out of your choice of super special awesome stain remover? Blue dawn dish soap is also a great option. It didn't work as well as Puracy, but the stain left behind is only visible in the right lighting if I'm staring very hard directly at it.
  • I have heard that darker colors fade faster and pill worse than lighter ones. The explanation was that, when printed on, the dyes sit on one side of the fabric, so when its washed the tiny white fibers of the original printed-on fabric poke through. I fully intend to test this further at some point, though I have already noticed a difference in one or two of my daughter's darkest rompers that may confirm this. - Note: I have been testing this and there's some truth to it, but it also has to do with GSM - higher GSM can have more pilling due to having lower elasticity, but its also less prone to pineholes, tearing, and being see-through.
  • And lastly, and this is entirely up to personal preferences, but I only wash if its dirty. If I can get 2 or 3 wears out of a romper before it needs to go through the wash, fantastic. The less time spent being tumbled, stretched, and soaked, the better. (This isn't common, as my Little One has discovered the joy of simultaneously eating and blowing raspberries, but it does happen from time to time!)

This page will be regularly updated with any new care information as I discover it! Please feel free to contact me and let me know if you've had experiences different than what I have listed here.