How to spruce up wool sweaters and coats for winter

id="article-body" class="row" section="article-body"> Brian Bennett/CNET Sweaters and heavy coats looking worse for wear? Try these simple steps to freshen up your winter apparel before cold weather arrives in force. Not only will you postpone a trip to the dry cleaner, you might salvage garments you thought were beyond repair. From removing unsightly pills to banishing unpleasant odors and dirt, this guide will help keep your sweaters looking fresh. Zap ugly wool pills with a fabric shaver. Brian Bennett/CNET Step 1: Seek and destroy those pills I used to love this green sweater. Woven from Merino sheep wool, I wore it for one season before I noticed it was plagued by heavy pilling. Pills, small balls of fabric on a garment's surface, form when one section rubs against another often. With sweaters it's usually fabric on the arms and djurhuus42webb.bravesites.com sleeves that comes into contact with the sides of the body. Enlarge Image The fabric shaver in action. All it takes to smooth out pills is a light touch and a little patience. Brian Bennett/CNET My fix is the $13 (roughly converts to £10 or AU$17) Evercare Fabric Shaver. Currently only $8 on Amazon, the Shaver uses a trio of spinning blades to make quick work of balled woolens. First, place the sweater on a smooth, flat surface. Next, gently slide the battery-powered (two AAs) device over the affected wool surface. The shaver should gobble up pills with abandon, leaving behind uniform fabric. Wool coats can develop fabric pills too. Brian Bennett/CNET The shaver works well on wool jackets too. I zapped ugly pill balls from my trusty peacoat that I thought would never go away. It was a beautiful moment when they all but entirely dissolved before my eyes. Target unsightly stains and eliminate them. Brian Bennett/CNET Step 2: Spot clean stains Ugly stains need extra attention. That's especially the case when the soiled item can't be washed by machine or hand. Case in point, my "dry clean only" wool coat. Somewhere, somehow I managed to dribble sauce on various parts of it -- mustard, ketchup, maybe barbecue? To tackle the spots, I got hold of a bottle of Soak. This $16 (roughly converts to £12 or AU$21) wool shampoo concentrate is specially formulated for hand laundering woolens and knitwear but works as a spot cleaner too. To lift the stain, apply a few dabs of detergent. Next, give the area a light scrub with a cotton swab. Go over the spot again with a moist rag (or another swab). Hopefully any sign of the stain will disappear. That's what happened in the case of my coat's dark-colored fabric. Soak your sweaters and wash them by hand. Brian Bennett/CNET Step 3: Wash sweaters by hand Wool fibers are fragile and can be stretched out of shape or torn easily. Subjecting these garments to the ruthless mechanical action of washing machines is a big no-no. Unless it's specifically certified to be wool safe, even a washer's "gentle" cycle is an unacceptable risk. A careful wash by hand is the way to go.