I washed a dry-clean only wool sweater. It smells awful! Now, what do I do? ?

Question

A complete accident, I am a total idiot. I didn't dry it, I let it air-dry instead, but the smell is awful. What can I do?

Answer 1

wash it again in very cold water and the rinse it in very cold water with a little sweet smelling fabric softener. Squeeze out as much water as you can then roll it in a big bath towel, after about an hour take it out of the bath towel - lay it on a flat surface with another dry bath towel under it. Make sure there is plenty of light and air on it during the drying process.  Once it is dry, the smell should be gone.

If not rub a bit of baby powder through it and then shake it off in the open air.

Good luck

Answer 2

have you try  fabric fresher i would let it sun for several hours then spray it and then let it air out real good. if that should help then i wound spray it again and put a bag over it wait a liile while and check it.i would like to hear from you if it works or if you fine something esle that works.

good luck

Answer 3

It won't be related to the dry-clean tag: wool sweaters are generally hand-washable unless they're dyed with a colour that runs. (Manufacturers put "dry clean" on the tag to prevent people from machine-washing them and shrinking them, then demanding a refund.)

The only thing I can think of is that it stayed wet for long enough that it developed mildew. If this is the case, what you can do depends on the sweater's colour and whether you shrunk it in the machine. (If so, it's not really worth dealing with.)

Answer 4

Some wool smells like wet dog(or maybe sheep) when it's wet. The more natural the wool, the more smell. The smell should pretty much go away once it's really dry, and once you've worn it a couple of times. Don't put it in the dryer unless on air only, no heat, not for very long and maybe not even then. The dryer action can shrink some wool. If you can, I'd put the sweater outside in the sun for half a day. Failing that, something like febreze or a linen spray might help the smell, and if you wash it another time, you could put a little of either of those in the rinse water .