As the weather warms, a tweed jacket becomes increasingly antisocial as the wearer slowly acquires the aroma of a damp moorland sheep. So, now is the time to clean jackets for Summer storage.
Inspired by a comment by Nigel Cabourn, in which he advocated hand-washing the Harris tweed Mallory jacket for a rugged finish, I thought I'd give it a try - if only to save the costs of dry-cleaning! Cabourn advises turning the jacket inside-out, soaking it for ten to forty minutes in lukewarm water (the longer the time, the greater the shrinkage of up to half a size) and then wringing out the water before drying the jacket in the Sun (which we've recently rediscovered here in London). Here's a photo from the Cabourn blog -
I tried this with my Cabourn Tenzing jacket and with an old Marks and Spencers Harris tweed jacket which I had put aside to give to a charity shop. Both were slightly large for me, so I was interested to see if a wash would improve the fit.
Both jackets ended up feeling considerably softer and with the worn, slightly creased appearance of a well-used and much loved garment. They shrank slightly and are more comfortable to wear as a result. Give it a try, but don't blame me if it all goes wrong!
