Twenty of the bags we stock are cotton of one kind or another — plain cotton, certified organic cotton, organic twill, denim. They are the easiest thing in the range to look after and the easiest to ruin, usually in the same wash.
Cold water, inside out, and nothing clever
A cotton tote wants a cold wash on a gentle cycle. Warm water is what shrinks it, and a heavy cotton tote has enough fabric in it that a shrink of even a few per cent shows up as a bag that no longer swallows a shop. Turn it inside out first if the handles are a contrast colour — the handle webbing is usually dyed separately from the body, and the inside of a machine is where dye transfer happens.
Skip fabric softener. It coats the fibres, and coated cotton stops absorbing, which is most of what a cotton bag is for. If the bag has picked up a smell rather than a stain, a cup of white vinegar in the drum does more than softener ever will.
Air dry, and be patient about it
Do not tumble dry a cotton tote. The dryer is hotter than the wash and it is where the real shrinkage happens. Hang it by the handles, pull the corners square while it is still damp, and leave it. A heavy tote takes most of a day. Denim takes longer and will feel stiff until it has been used once or twice.
Stains, before they set
- Oil and grease. Cover it in cornflour or talc, leave it an hour to draw the oil out, brush it off, then wash. Attacking oil with water first spreads it.
- Coffee, wine, fruit. Cold water from the back of the fabric, pushing the stain out rather than through. Hot water sets these.
- Ink. Dab, never rub. Rubbing turns a spot into a smear you cannot undo.
Natural and undyed cotton is a different animal
The undyed colourways — anything we list as Natural, Oyster or Ivory — show marks more readily and yellow slightly with sunlight over a long enough period. That is the fabric behaving normally, not a fault. If you want a bag that hides a hard life, the darker colourways in the same line are the same cotton with more forgiveness.
What we do not claim
None of our cotton bags are waterproof, and we do not treat them to be. A cotton tote in real rain will wet through, and so will the contents. If that matters for what you are carrying, the nylon and polyester bags in the range shed water where cotton will not — the specification on each product page says which material you are getting.