Embroidered patches are a great addition to just about any piece of clothing. Whether you use patches to identify a specific group, recognize someone for a specific achievement, or simply make a statement about who you are or what you believe, they give any piece of clothing an added measure of style and flair. Yet they can present problems when it's time to throw that clothing in the washing machine. You must remember consider both the instructions on the garment tag and the care of the embroidered patches.
One of the most damaging things you can do to your patches is to use chlorine bleach. Chlorine is a very caustic substance which slowly eats away at the fibers of fabric and threads. Anyone who's ever used bleach on their whites knows how quickly socks get holes in them, as opposed to when they are washed without chlorine bleach. The same can be said about the threads used to embroider patches.
Faded Colors and Broken Threads
When you wash embroidered patches with chlorine bleach you will be reducing the life of the patch proportionally. As the chlorine affects the various threads you'll begin to see their colors fade, increasing over time until the individual threads begin to break. By that time there'll be little you can do to extend the life of the patch. You're better off purchasing a replacement and making the switch as soon as possible.
If you absolutely must use bleach, a non-chlorine-based product is much better. Non-chlorine bleaches give you much of the same benefits as chlorine products yet without the harmful effects on fabrics and threads. And while it's true that your colors and whites may not come out as bright with non-chlorine bleach, they will still come out brighter than if you used no bleach at all. Just be sure to follow the directions on your bleach packaging to ensure you're using the product correctly. Non-chlorine bleach should have no effect on your embroidered patches.
One Good Use for Chlorine Bleach
Before we end up throwing out chlorine bleach altogether, it's important to note that it does serve a valuable purpose with embroidered patches. It allows us to alter the color of our patches if we feel there's a need to do so. For example, suppose you ordered custom company patches with the expectation that gold borders would be perfectly suited to your beige-colored shirts. But when the patches arrived the gold was too bright, causing an unacceptable contrast between the two colors. You can use chlorine bleach to soften the gold border before you attach the patches to the shirts.
This can be done using a small craft paint brush. Simply brush the chlorine across the border, being careful not to get any on other parts of the patch. When the color is sufficiently faded to your liking, run the entire thing under cold water in order to wash away the excess and neutralize the bleaching action. After the patch dries it's ready to be attached.
