I have a white 100% cotton dress that says hand wash cold what does this mean?
Wash by hand (i.e. not in a machine) in cold water. Usually you use Woolite for something like that. Or, if you don't live in the 18th century and would rather not be bothered washing clothes by hand, take it to the cleaners and they'll do whatever is appropriate.
you could put it in the washing machine on LIGHT WASH and have the heat setting on COLD (also remember not to put any thing else in the wash with the dress)
Just what it says, put into a sink and wash it with your hands with cold water. By doing this it is more gentle on the garment. Also cold water will keep it from shrinking. Hot will make it shrink.
It means it is delicate and should be washed gently by hand. Get a basin of cold water and wool lite soap for delicate and swish around in the wash basin and sort work like your agitator on the washing machine. Let it soak a while and then swish it around again and squeeze the suds through it a few times. Dump out the soapy water and wring the dress gently getting the water soap and suds out. Then rinse into cool basin of fresh water. Swish around a few times more. wring it out from the water again and do one more rinse to make sure no soap remains. Wring it out gently and roll into a bath towel to dry partially. Hang to dry. It isn't a lot of work at all but to explain it makes it sound difficult. Good Luck
It means that it is 1) Delicate: you should either wash it by hand or use your own common sense to decide if you think the washing machine will rip it or not 2) Cotton: it will shrink if you put it in the dryer, so hang it up instead unless you don't mind it shrinking and possibly warping 3) Cold Water: the color will probably leak off it and onto your other clothes, and it might fade. When I buy delicate items like that I just wash them the normal (anal) way I wash all my other clothes, but they FIRST time you wash it ONLY with black (or similar colored to itself) items, and I would still dry it anyways (if you dry it and it warps, just iron it back into place, cotton shrinks but it can handle the heat of an iron), cuz I'm a rebel and my clothes don't tell me what to do. If it has strings hanging off it that may tangle in the wash, then tie them in a nice tight bow first. If it is a small garment, just put it in a garment bag and don't worry about it being delicate.
