I’m cheap, I’ll admit it publicly. I love getting a great deal on clothing and if you compliment my outfit I’ll say, “Thanks! It only cost $5!” Or something equally embarrassing. Most of the time I won’t even have the good sense to be embarrassed.
While I know I’m cheap, and I’ll gladly TELL you I’m cheap. I don’t want to LOOK cheap. I keep my clothes years and years without paying much attention to trends. I like what I like. But when what I like gets pilled…now that I don’t like.
When I was a teen, I had a battery operated depilling device that was worthless. After that failure I gave up on removing pills, concentrating on buying clothes that don’t pill often–100% cotton things and higher quality brands (from the clearance rack, ROSS or the thrift store.) Recently I noticed my higher quality brands are pilling–and some are manufactured with pills already on them. They call it slub knit. WHY?!!!!!!
My search for depilling fabric renews! I tried a razor (a daisy pink) and it worked pretty well. It removed the pills as long as I kept cleaning it out. The pills had to be taken off the garment with a sticky lint remover, but it disconnected them really well. If the fabric was delicate at all, or got a wrinkle in it, the razor would leave a tiny hole.
There are “sweater Stones” and “depilling combs” but I finally took a risk and purchased another battery operated depiller. If it weren’t for the glowing reviews I never would have done it. Technology has changed in the last 20 years. It may look the same as the old depiller but it didn’t behave the same. My clothing looked like new when I was done, and it collected all the lint into it’s own reservoir.
It works better on bulky knits like sweaters. The finer knits need more passes and to be held perfectly flat. The reservoir needs to be cleaned out frequently so it doesn’t get too full and clog the head.
Have you tried any depilling methods? Did anything work well for you?
Your honesty makes me laugh about being cheap. So am I. I use an old depiler that I think works fine. But maybe a new one works better. I am too cheap to buy it. lol I don’t wear alot of knits anyway, but no matter I would use my old depiler. Unfortunately I don’t buy clothes at the thrift store. The larger clothes size I wear there just isn’t much of here in Portland. I cut in other places to be able to get larger sizes. Since I do work with an estate sale group I have been able to refurbish something and regift to ppl in my family that I gift to. Last Christmas I got nearly all my Cmas gifts from estate sales. I had to fix a couple items, one was a snow globe, but I spent $5.00 on all my items and covered every one! Well except my brother, I did buy him a vest on sale at a local store. I was really proud of myself. We have some medical bills due to my husbands cancer, so this helped alot!
Pati, I’m so sorry about your husband’s cancer. It’s super creative shopping at estate sales.
Where did you find/buy it?
Amazon. I think I put a link to it. The conair one got the best reviews and is reasonably priced.
I have found that my battery depiller works better when I lay the clothes on a surface that won’t let it shift like an ironing board with grippy fabric. When it shifts is when I get little holes.
Oh, you did. I’m sorry I didn’t notice that. Thank you!
How funny reading this article I thought I had one of those and it worked pretty well. Not to date myself (mine is pink by Windmere) but I went and found it, now I need to get a battery because it uses a C not one I keep on hand. The other day I noticed a black long sleeve top of mine had pilled badly, so if my battery replacement doesn’t work I will purchase the Conair. Thanks Angela for jogging the memory.
Walmart sells one that has power adapter so it doesn’t need batteries. It’s actually a little more powerful than the battery one.
Ooh, good to know