How to Wash a Sweater

Tips from The Laundress

We’re not going to name names, but we know someone — definitely not one of our editors — who doesn’t wash her sweaters. (“Why dry clean when you can Febreze?”)

Don’t be That Girl. Clean knits yourself (even cashmere!) with help from Lindsey Wieber Boyd, co-founder of The Laundress. In today’s video, she demystifies the sweater-washing process, from removing pills and stains to proper drying.

Want to keep washing? Check out our video on cleaning a coat in the washing machine. Seriously. To prove how doable it is, Wieber Boyd demonstrated on her vintage Chanel jacket. (It’s wool, but the procedure also works for down.)

Now a certain someone — no one you know — won’t have to keep her arms down on the subway.

For more information or to buy the products mentioned in the videos, go to thelaundress.com. Enter DCVIDEO11 at checkout for 15 percent off (good through January 19). For more laundry tricks, watch our tutorials on cleaning silk in the machine and washing delicates.

Next Video: How to Pose for a Picture

How to Pose for a Picture

Expert Tips for Looking Good in Photos

Shiny forehead, freak grimace, bulging eyes — you’ve got an uncanny ability to ruin a photo. And thanks to Facebook tagging, the entire world can witness your awkward mugging until the end of time.

You could avoid cameras altogether. Or you could just watch today’s video, with its simple tips for looking great in pictures.

Our expert, Sardi Klein, longtime NYC photographer and professor at The School of Visual Arts and Pratt, has seen it all, from mothers of the bride who peer skyward to avoid double chins to businessmen whose phony smiles turn head shots into mug shots.

Follow her advice, and the next time someone tags you in a photo, you might just share instead of hide.

Is there something you want to learn to do? Submit ideas to easydoesit@dailycandy.com.

Let’s be friends — on Facebook.

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Next Video: Throw a Successful Dinner Party

How to Create the Perfect Messy Side Bun

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Tonight will probably be filled with bad decisions (that last glass of champers, for starters).

Ring in 2011 with at least a little dignity by avoiding the drunken late-night ponytail. You can stay classy all night long with the perfect messy bun, courtesy of NYC’s Fox & Boy salon (and one of our favorite how-to videos of the year).

Because even if you want to be a hot mess, your hair doesn’t have to be.

Not feeling the messy bun? Try out the around-the-head French braid, modern beehive, or pinned-up curls (for shorter hair).

Throw a Successful Dinner Party

Dinner Smarties

At your last mealtime gathering, you did everything right: big, pricey steaks; fancy-schmancy china; stimulating conversation cards (what’s your animal soul mate?!).

No wonder the whole thing was so awkward.

Next time, take a cue from Tamara Reynolds and Zora O’Neill, the hilarious Astoria-based hostesses with the mostest behind Forking Fantastic: Put the Party Back in Dinner Party.

In today’s video, the gals, who’ve been hosting wildly popular Sunday night shindigs for six years, walk us through dinner party faux pas — and they’re not what you’d expect (the tips or the ladies).

You’ll feel so inspired, you’ll start planning another soiree immediately.

Just don’t bring your sexy panda friend.

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