How to Wash & Care for Embroidered Clothing | Prinova Care Guide

One of the biggest reasons to choose embroidered clothing is longevity — stitched designs survive wash after wash while prints crack and fade. But embroidery does have a few simple rules. Follow these and your pieces will look new for years.

Washing: the four rules

Turn it inside out. This is the single most important habit. It protects the stitching from friction against the drum and other garments.
Wash cold — 30°C. Cold water protects both the thread colour and the cotton. Hot washes are where shrinkage and colour bleed happen.
Gentle cycle, mild detergent. Skip bleach and heavy stain removers anywhere near the embroidery — they can discolour thread even when the fabric survives.
Wash with similar colours. Standard advice, but doubly relevant with contrast-colour stitching on dark garments.

Drying: air, not heat

Never tumble dry embroidered clothing. High heat is the enemy — it can shrink the fabric around the stitching, causing the dreaded "puckering" where the patch buckles and wrinkles. Instead, lay the garment flat to dry, or hang it away from direct sunlight. Heavyweight cotton holds a lot of water, so flat drying also stops the garment stretching out of shape on the hanger.

Ironing: go around, never over

Direct iron contact can melt or flatten embroidery thread. If you need to iron:

Turn the garment inside out and iron the reverse side, or
Place a thin cotton cloth between the iron and the embroidery, and
Use medium heat with steam — never press hard directly on the stitches.

Honestly, a heavyweight tee rarely needs ironing at all if you lay it flat to dry and smooth it by hand.

If a thread comes loose

Don't pull it — ever. Pulling one loose thread can unravel neighbouring stitches. Snip it carefully with small scissors, flush with the embroidery. Quality dense stitching will hold shape fine.

Storage

Fold heavyweight tees rather than hanging them long-term (hangers can distort oversized shoulders), and store hoodies folded on a shelf. Keep dark garments out of prolonged direct sunlight.

The 10-second version

30°C inside out · no tumble dry · lay flat to dry · no direct iron on the stitching. Do that, and the embroidery will outlast everything printed in your wardrobe.

Every Prinova tee and hoodie ships with these care instructions — stitched, not printed, and built to be washed hundreds of times.