Tips - what happens if I wash my bows??

I've had some questions about how to clean the bows. Since I wanted to be sure I was giving good advice, I decided to do some experimenting. For this experiment, I wanted to find out what happens if the bows go through the laundry (it happens, after all, we're busy moms). So, I took some styles that are very popular, and I thought would be a good representative of many of my bows. Here they are before the wash:

Here we have a Rufflie, mini korker, medium basic, marabou puff and a pinwheel. These are in their normal, ready-to-sell state. Remember that the korker and medium basic are sprayed to keep their nice shape. So far, so good.

So, I put them in my washer (it's a front-loader, so it's supposed to be more gentle on items, but I don't think it would change the results, really) with a normal, warm load, and then through the dryer on high - just like they accidentally went through with the laundry.

Here they are just after they came through:

Believe it or not, but I think the marabou puff was even softer and fluffier! The rufflie came through like a trooper too. And the pinwheel also (it's a very stable bow, so I really wasn't worried about it). However, the poor little medium basic and korker weren't so lucky.

This is after I "fussed" over them a bit. The medium basic bow pretty much refuses to go back to a decent shape. For the korker, I was able to re-arrange and fluff it back up, so except for not having any stiffness, it's not in too bad a shape.

So, to conclude: I would definitely not recommend machine washing your bows. If it happens, however, don't worry - most will come through fine, except for the basics.

The way I do recommend washing your bows is with a little water and dish detergent or Woolite, and either with your fingers or a rag, just dab it.