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What Does Dry Flat Mean? (Answered & Explained)

I bet you have just washed any cloth you may own, but when you check some symbols that are added on the cloth label, you see one that says dry flat! What does that mean? Well, I am here to help you!

In this article, I will tell you what dry flat exactly means, as well as some other important information regarding drying clothes in general. Let’s get this article started!


Key Takeaways

  • The dry flat manner is one of the most secure ways in case you don’t want to destroy your clothes in the dryer.
  • In order to find out if a cloth needs to be dry flat, you should check out the label that it has on the inner part.
  • There are some materials that require dry-flat and they are the most delicate ones that can be used during the making of a garment.
  • The main thing that you will need in order to make the best dry-flat is a great absorbent towel.

What is Meant By Dry Flat?

I am well aware of the fact that many people love to use a dryer when it comes to the part after washing their clothes, but if a cloth has the dry flat symbol on the label, you should respect that sign and work as it is required.

Drying flat means that after washing your clothes, you should let them lay flat to dry down on a flat surface. Whenever a cloth should be dried flat, you must never put it on a dryer or even hang it out air dry.

The dry flat symbol will come to you on a white square with black borders and a black horizontal line in the middle. If you ever encounter this sign on any of your clothing labels, you should definitely respect it and dry your clothes that way.


Why Should I Use Dry Flat Manner?

There is nothing better than using a dryer in order to deal with clothes that are just getting out of the washing machine, but still, if a cloth says that it needs to be laying flat to dry, you cannot say no to that.

If you choose to use the manner air dry flat clothes, you will not destroy any piece of your clothes. Drying machines tend to damage the fibers of some fabrics, and when you lay them down and wait for them to get dried, your clothes will stay intact without any slight damage.

What is special about this manner of drying rack is that there is nothing that can stop it, and everything will be perfectly fine after it is done. You will love to dry-flat every piece of clothing that you may already own.


What Materials Need to Be Dried Flat?

You may know that not every fabric is made of the same fibers, and not each fabric can be dried flat. However, here we are mostly concerned about the materials that need to be dried flat, including silk, satin, wool, cotton, spandex, and polyester.

The reason why these types of fabrics should be dried flat is because of the super-delicate fibers that they have within them. Some of them are man-made and their fragility is on top.

You will also encounter other materials, but the ones mentioned should all be dried flat as they are some of the most fragile fabrics that can ever be used in pieces of garments in general.


How and Where to Dry Flat Garments?

You can dry flat your clothes whenever and however you want! Still, something that you should always keep in mind is that under the cloth, you should always put a dry towel.

  • The towel should be absorbent, and you should lay the sweater on top of it.
  • You should roll the towel with your cloth in it, but ensure that you create no wrinkles.
  • After rolling, take your cloth out of the towel and put it on a new, dry, and again absorbent towel.
  • After you have done the three things mentioned above, leave your cloth lying there for some hours, and you will notice that everything will be ready.

As for where you put them, I am sure you wouldn’t want any wet and destroyed surface in your house. You can easily put your clothes on a table, on the floor, or on any place that is a flat surface. That’s because this method can really work anywhere, and can be easily considered the DIY method of drying clothes in general.


Final Words

After talking a lot, here we are at the end of this article!

As you have noticed through the article, drying rack in a dry-flat manner is the easiest thing that one can do, and this way is a big helper when it comes to the most delicate fabrics that you can use on any piece of clothing.

Once you follow the steps that I mentioned above in the article, you will notice that everything is super-easy.

What can I hope here at the end beside the fact that I really hope that this article has provided you with everything you needed to know regarding dry-flat meaning? I hope everything is understandable and it provided you with everything that you have been asking for.


Further Reading

As always, I cannot leave without giving you some other advice, on how you can read some other articles that I have already written.

Besides the washing and drying part, clothes have labels for ironing as well. Still, I would like to mention some materials and tell you if you can iron them or not. You can check out if silk can be ironed if you can iron satin, and whether you can iron burlap. Also, you can check if nylon fabric accepts bleach.

There is also the shrinking problem that many people encounter, and I would like to tell you if acrylic shrinks, whether viscose shrinks or rayon shrinks.

Check these articles out, and always stay tuned for even more!