Thursday, January 24, 2008

How to Remove Stubborn Nubs and Pills from Fleece

This post will serve as my oh-so-dramatic venture into the world of "helpful hints" and how-to's." Unless I'm inspired again someday by something as way cool as this, it might also serve as my exit from this exciting blogging genre.

But I must share!

A few months ago I bought at Eddie Bauer what would quickly become my all-time favorite fleece -- and that's saying a lot because us Seattle-ites are oh, so picky about our fleece. Thick and soft, with yummy fur-like fabric on the inside and smooth, high-quality fleece on the outside, this thing is warm enough to wear outside in even the coldest weather, yet it's light and cozy enough to wear inside when I'm on one of my "do-you-think-I'm-made-of-money-and-what-about-global-warming-turn-down-this-heat!" tirades. It's even slightly fitted, so I could dress it up or down. (Where but Seattle do people talk like this?!)

I pretty much wore this fleece everywhere.

Until I washed it. Stupid me -- I washed it with a blue majorly nubby throw rug and since then I've tried everything to get rid of the gazillions of minuscule light blue nubs on my favorite fleece, all to no avail. I tried sticky rollers, duct tape, and I even tried pulling the little buggers off one by one. But nothing worked.

Ashamed and dejected (did someone call me dramatic?!), I began to wear my favorite fleece only in the confines of my own home.

Sad, sad, sad. Whine, whine, whine. Pout, pout, pout.

I mentioned to Kat today how much I wished I could remove the nubbies and pills (or are they interchangeable?) from my fleece, and she suggested that I "shave" it. Yup, that's right -- SHAVE it with a disposable razor! The idea is that, whereas the sticky stuff can't get the nubs off because they're actually attached, the shaver cuts those tiny threads!

And it works! I "shaved" part of my fleece, sweeping all the newly-loosened nubs into one line and then I rolled over the loosened buggers with my sticky linty thingy (now there's a name for a new product, eh?), and VOILA!

Anyone want to meet for lunch? You'll know it's me because I'll be wearing a nice, clean, nub-free black fleece.

Oh wait -- so is everyone else in Seattle.

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7 comments:

Jen said...

What a great trick! When I saw the title of the post, I thought - of course, who else would I go to about fleece care than a Seattleite!

vailian said...

I keep hoping fur will come back. It is everything fleece was supposed to be but sexier. And despite all the propaganda to the contrary, it is actually more ecofriendly in every way that I can think of.
Lasts longer too.

Home's Jewels said...

I will definitely use this idea. We, of course, live in fleece in Oregon, too, and I hate the pills.

current3 said...

I am so glad this post is still here 5 years later! I have tried everything and was about to throw out my son's favorite fleece coat. Thank you!!

Unknown said...

Why spend all that money on throw-away lint remover?! Why not get a fun new tool made specifically for this problem?? Curious? : ) yes, take 10 seconds to see what you are missing at www.SecretKidCleanup.com

nobody said...

Even better, get a small wire suede brush. Brush your fleece when it comes out of the dryer and it is like new. I keep the brush over the dryer and it only take a few minutes. Well worth the time to make it just like new.

Katie Barker said...

Thanks so much- my search for "removing pills from fleece" lead me right to your post. And your tip worked just great! My mom used to have a little battery operated pill remover that was kind of like an electric razor but since I don't have one (and who knows if they even still make such a thing) this was perfect.

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