The question I get asked the most is whether our wooden buttons can go into the washing machine. The short answer is yes. By applying a few simple measures that I am going to cover in this post, you can keep your wooden buttons looking new for a long time.

If there is only one thing I can do to care for my wooden buttons, I would do this:

Wrap the wooden button with a small square of aluminium foil before putting it to wash.

I have a glass jar of pre-cut aluminium foil squares sitting above my washing machine. Before I put the garment into the washer, I wrap up the buttons individually. After the wash is complete, I peel the squares off and put them back into the jar before drying the garment.

You can use this technique too when you are taking your garment to the dry cleaners. The foil protects your button from the chemical solvent used during dry cleaning.

Other things you could do to protect your button during a wash:

• Put it in a laundry mesh bag
• Turn the garment inside out
• Do up all the buttons (so that they don’t move and rub with other surfaces as much in the washer)
• Wash in cold water
• Set the spin cycle on the lowest speed to prevent damage
• Avoid soaking the buttons in water for a prolonged period of time
• Dry naturally

Bonus Tip

A lot of the suggestions above can also be used to protect other intricate embellishments you might have on your clothes, such as beads and sequins. ;)