Right, come on. hands up.
Who knows what this means:
Any ideas?
I know, we see it ALL the time on the label… but what does it actually tell you that you can’t do to the garment?
Well I didn’t know – despite being Chief Laundress in the house for the last 23 years (well, minus 18mths. I’ve pretty much done zero laundry for the last 18mths…).
It’s no Bleaching. NO BLEACHING!
Like I needed a label to tell me that.
How about this one then… (I know, it’s like an unexpectedly fun quiz, no?)
I wasn’t convinced I’d ever even seen this one – but then I checked a couple of dresses, and lo. There it was.
The meaning’s obvious though… (it isn’t)
It’s Hang to Dry.
Obviously.
So how am I suddenly a font of all laundry symbol knowledge I hear you cry. Well, it’s thanks to a really fun project with SuperSavvyMe – who have noticed a certain yawn-fest tends to arrive when we start thinking about laundry symbols (I think most of us just bung it in on a 40º and hope, yes?). So they thought it’d be fun to make up some new ones; of a distinctly more fun variety.
So they thought they would ask a bunch of kids to create some new ones. Genius!
Consequently, last week I gave 8yr old Bear the brief.
Then I quickly backed up, and spent ten minutes explaining what laundry symbols were.
(that’s when I finally discovered what the bleach triangle meant. No lesson ever wasted.)
And so we were back to the brief again. This time she totally got it, and her eyes lit up.
We decided at first to make a list – she started off small;
1 – a water drop to show you could wash it in water.
2 – a hand to show you can wash it with hands
I explained she was being FAR too sensible, and that she was totally free to make up any thing she could imagine. She frowned a little, and then began writing again
3 – a broken car to show you mustn’t wash cars in the washing machine
4 – a cat hanging upside down in fizzy water to show you can’t wash cats in washing machines
5 – a sad rabbit with an iron on his face to show you mustn’t iron toy rabbits.
(see – she’s really getting it now)
And six was a winner. So she set to with a canvas and paints…
One symbol just wouldn’t convey what she wanted, so she was determined to have a pair that worked together. Who am I to argue?
And it’s taking shape nicely now – I admit I helped with the ketchup and mustard, but the rest is all her. We had to have another quick lesson about the º symbol, mind…
I thought you’d enjoy the close up of some serious canine magnificence.
And finally, she was done.
Can you see it? See what she did?
Remember that, people. We do not want Hot Dogs in the clean laundry…
The lovely Jo at SlummySingleMummy and Gill at ABabyOnBoard also took part in the fun with SuperSavvyMe – you can see their photographs over on SuperSavvyMe’s blog post about laundry symbols.
This post was written in partnership with Supersavvyme
