Cold water, and shade.
That is most of it. Handblock cotton is a robust everyday cloth and does not need ceremony — what it needs is cold water, no sun while it dries, and to be kept away from everything else for the first two washes. The exceptions are foil and anything with lace on it, and both are below.
By fabric
The same instruction that is written inside each piece in the catalogue, in one place.
| Fabric | How to wash it |
|---|---|
| Handblock cotton, Kota Doria dupatta | Machine wash cold, separately for the first two washes |
| Handblock cotton, handblock check pants | |
| Pure handblock cotton | |
| Foil handblock cotton, foil Kota Doria dupatta | Hand wash cold, dry in shade — foil does not like a machine |
| Georgette kurta and dupatta, samosa lace, cotton pants | Dry clean only |
| Chiffon kurta and dupatta, samosa lace, cotton pants | |
| Pure cotton, chiffon or cotton dupatta | Machine wash the cotton cold — a chiffon dupatta by hand, and dry it in shade |
| Handblock cotton, chiffon dupatta | Machine wash the cotton cold, separately for the first two washes — the chiffon dupatta by hand, and dry it in shade |
The first two washes
Alone, or with nothing you would mind losing. Hand printing leaves more loose dye in the cloth than machine printing does, and the first time it gets wet that dye comes out. It is not the print failing — the print is in the fibre. It is the surplus leaving.
Cold water, no soaking. A handblock piece left sitting in a bucket for an hour will redeposit its own dye onto its own pale areas, which is the one way to genuinely ruin one at home. In and out.
Kota Doria, which is the delicate part
The dupatta on most of our everyday pieces is Kota Doria — a very open square-grid weave from Kota, light enough to see through and structured by the weave rather than by any weight of cloth. It is the component most likely to be damaged, and almost always by force rather than by water.
- Never wring it. The grid distorts and does not come back. Press the water out between palms, or roll it in a towel.
- No machine, no brush, no rubbing at a stain. The squares are held by the tension of the weave and abrasion opens them.
- Dry it flat or over a wide rail, not pegged at two corners — a wet Kota dupatta hanging from two points will carry that stretch permanently.
- Iron on low, on the reverse, while slightly damp. A hot iron on a dry open weave glazes it.
Why shade, specifically
Indian sun fades dyed cotton faster than anything else that will happen to the garment, and it does it unevenly — the folded-over half dries darker than the exposed half. Dry everything inside out, out of direct sun. This matters more for a handblock piece than a plain one, because the colour is the product.
Foil, lace and georgette
Foil is a surface treatment, so anything abrasive takes it off — machine drums, brushes, and wringing. Hand wash cold, dry in shade, and do not iron directly over the foil.
Georgette and chiffon with samosa lace go to the dry cleaner. Not caution for its own sake: the lace and the base cloth shrink at different rates in water, and the seam between them is where that shows.