WAG Leotards care... Help???

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Flipomaniak

Gymnast
So I got a some new leos. Some are $60 leotards so of course I want them to last and stay pretty as long as possible.

How can I keep the jewels from falling out? How can I keep the color from fading? And then there's the whole issue about sweat stains... how can I prevent these? My favorite is white and I heard you can get yellow pit stains on white leos...

I usually just put my leos in the washing machine but I have never liked my leotards so much and now that I have some very nice leotards that I really like... Should I hand wash them to make them last longer?

Thank you for any tips!
 
I would follow the washing instructions on the leo itself. My daughter has mostly GK leos. GK can be washed in the machine. I use the gentle cycle and a mild detergent (Ivory snow is good). Put them in the dryer on air fluff. Always wash inside out.

Some leos say to hand wash only so read the labels carefully.
 
We use Woolite for colors on gentle cycle, leos inside out, hang dry. My DD has about 25 so she got one of those plastic 2 drawer carts and the clean ones go in the top drawer and the dirty in the bottom. When the bottom drawer gets full I wash them. That way they never accidentally get thrown in the regular laundry.
 
Plain training leo's go in the wash on a silk cycle with a bit of non-bio powder. Expensive/competition, or anything with gems attached, or foiled material, gets rinsed by hand- lukewarm water in the bowl, leave leo in for 15 mins, swirl gently and rinse.

I now have quite a supply of replacement gems- they're fairly cheap and I've got a couple of mixed bags of colours in each different size (about £1 for 100). Bottle of gem-tac glue or an iron and they're easy to replace.

Mainly though I don't buy expensive (anything over £10) for regular training, as they do inevitably get trashed.
 
I once had colors bleed on a leo that had both dark and light colors when I hand washed it (they didn't bleed until after I hung it to dry). I think this is the reason GK says to put theirs in the wash! The spin cycle does a great job of ringing all the water out so there's no chance of color transfer while they're hung to dry. If your spin cycle is not great (my new washer is MUCH better than my old - now they are practically dry when they come out of the washer) then I'd put them in the air/fluff cycle in the dryer too. Otherwise I do think the dryer dulls the color and the shiny-ness faster. Not sure about the deodorant stains. I'd love to hear what others say on that one. And I've yet to have jewels fall off our GK leos. No experience with other brands though.
 
My mom washes mine normally with all my other clothes except has them inside out and then hangs them up to dry. It's always worked for us!
 
If you are worried about color transfer, you can buy sheets at the grocery that catch the color. I think they are made by Shout. They seem to do a good job. I throw my girls' leos in the handwash/silk cycle in the washer on cold. I use Woolite on them. I then do an air dry cycle on the dryer. So far they've all come through nicely including the ones with crystals. The only problems we've had with keeping jewels on GK leos is when my daughter does bars and rubs them off and when GK didn't attach the jewels properly. We've got leos with jewels that have stayed on for several years of use as training leos.
 
I wash all my dd's in the machine on gentle with just a tiny bit of liquid ivory snow. Then hang dry. I was told, too, that soaking/hand washing will cause the colors to run. On another note- my dh has to wear rayon polo shirts to work and it's very hot out here in the desert, and he is outside aLOT. he gets those deodorant stains and I was told to saturate the stain with rubbing alcohol, then throw in the laundry like normal. Works great on his shirts....I don't know if it would work on a leo or not though... (just being cautious) Maybe if you had an older one you could try it on first???
 
I follow the instructions on the tag. For example, my GK all get washed and dried with my regular laundry (they specifically say do not hang dry I believe) But I have other leos that go in the regular wash but hang to dry.

~Katy
 
I handwash in salt water, no detergent, and hang on an indoor rack to dry. When I tried using detergent a couple of times, it dulled the shine of the metallic fabrics. I haven't had a problem with colours running, although the pink and purple leos tend to colour the water pink.
 
Aluminium zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly reacts with sweat to cause the yellow stains on clothes. It's common in a lot of deodorants, especially in the US. If you look at the ingredients before you buy, you should be able to prevent the stains on the white leo. If you don't particularly like the deodorant, just where it on white leo days. ;-) As for the care, I wash on gentle cycle with color boosters. Then depending on my mood, I either hang to dry or dry on low heat in the dryer. Our washer uses so little water though, that they are not really wet at all when I take them out, so color bleeding has never been a problem.
 
Even though some leos say to "tumble dry low" I always hang them to dry. First of all, I'm not convinced that the "low" setting on our dryer is all that low. But also it just seems to me that they will last longer if they are hung to dry. I guess the idea is to avoid them hanging wet and giving the colors an opporunity to bleed, but I haven't had much of an issue with that. Maybe the first few times you wash them you could dry them in front of a fan or something, especially if any of them have both dark and light fabrics in them. With one daughter in dance and one in gymnastics, I get a fair-sized load of leos pretty quickly. Turn inside out (important!), cold water, gentle cycle, a small amount of gentle detergent, NO fabric softener, hang dry. DD has leos that she's had for years!

Now, her new competition leotard is another matter all together... you know you're in trouble when the instructions start out "hand wash in distilled water." Distilled water? Really? It just gets worse from there. These are the most complicated washing instructions I have ever seen. I'm going to be sweating buckets the first time I wash it for fear of doing it harm!
 
Thank you for all the tips! My favorite one is white with a mediumish blue patter. I'm scared the blue will transfer to the white. I also have a dark purple one with a bit of white and I'm scared the purple will transfer to the white...
 
I always wash in the machine and hang to dry. The biggest problem I have with leotards is the shiny rubbing off in certain places. I don't know what my DD does to some of her leotards, but there will be random splotches where the shiny foil dot stuff has rubbed off.
 
i hate washing them!
competition ones just get the arm pit and crotch wash coz i am scared of wrecking them training ones are not wreckable!
 

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