Lay your garment flat on the towel to dry if you don’t have a drying rack. Place your garment on a towel, roll the towel and carefully press out excessive water. If the circle has a cross over it, the item shouldn’t be dry cleaned. If there’s a letter inside the circle, it’s to tell the dry cleaner which chemical wash and method to use. A circle means the garment is suitable for dry cleaning. Some clothes can – or must – be dry cleaned.

A circle (special care) inside a square (drying) changes “dry” to “tumble dry.” What does a circle with a cross mean on clothes?ĭry cleaning symbols. And yes, when you live in a humid area running a fan in the room significantly cuts the drying time.Ī circle by itself usually means dry cleaning or wet cleaning. The towel wicks up a lot of the moisture preventing the sweater from sitting in a pool of water. My simple solution for quickly drying sweaters is to lay them flat on an absorbent bath towel. What does dry horizontally mean?Ī horizontal line in the center of the square means to dry the garment on a flat surface to prevent stretching. If it can be tumble dried (dried in a dryer), the symbol will also tell you how. What shape is used for all drying care symbols?ĭrying symbols The lines inside the square will tell you how an item should be air dried. This means that you should spread the garment on a flat surface under a shade or indoors. Some clothing care labels might provide more specific instructions such as “dry flat on shade”. No dot means that you can tumble dry your clothes on any heat.ĭry flat simply means that you spread a garment of a flat surface to air or sun dry after washing it. A square with a circle inside means that the item can be safely tumble dried, while the number of dots inside the tumble dry symbol indicates what temperature setting to use: one dot stands for low heat, two dots for medium, and three for high heat setting.

Lay flat to dry symbol