【Staff Favorite】Say Goodbye to Pilling: A Review of STEAMERY's Fabric Shaver

At ZUTTO, knit items are starting to arrive in stock. Thinking it was about time to get ready for winter clothes, I opened my closet the other day, only to find my favorite sweaters—complete with pilling. I felt a small pang of regret, thinking I should have removed the pills before putting them away…, but this year I'm a little excited, because I have something good on hand.

That's because I've gotten hold of a fabric shaver from the Scandinavian brand STEAMERY, and I'm ready to bring those sweaters back to life.

I used to be a bit bad at removing pills.

No matter how carefully you take care of your knits, pilling seems to appear before you know it. Painstakingly removing it with scissors takes quite a while—there were times when I thought I was halfway done, only to realize an hour had already passed. I've also tried cutting pills with an inexpensive fabric shaver before, but pressing too hard sometimes cut through yarn I didn't mean to touch, leaving holes, or the blade was so dull that it kept tugging at the fabric instead of cutting cleanly…. Ever since, I developed a bit of an aversion to the task.

I did wonder if STEAMERY's fabric shaver was a bit pricey for what is, after all, just a lint remover, but it's turned out to be one of the care products I'm genuinely glad I bought. To help both the knits I splurged on and the sweaters I've cherished for years last as long as possible, I'd like to share how I use it to care for my knitwear.

Since I started using STEAMERY.

This fabric shaver from STEAMERY arrived from Sweden. The brand offers clothing care items like irons, and its products are so comfortable to use that even professionals endorse them—they're even adopted by high-end hotels. Having already become a fan of the brand's steamer and its capabilities, I finally decided to bring the fabric shaver into my home as well.

For more details about the steamer, please also see this article.

I feel like the reason removing pills seems like such a hassle starts right from the moment you tell yourself, "Alright, let's do this," and go to get out the sweater and the lint remover. Since it's not something you use every day, the batteries are often dead, or you end up spending time hunting for where you put it—which only adds to the reluctance.

With STEAMERY, since it looks so nice, leaving it out on display like a decorative object actually lifts my mood a little. It's compact enough to fit in a drawer, so you can keep it near your closet, or in front of your dresser or bathroom sink—wherever is convenient—so you can use it the moment you notice a pill.

Since it comes at a certain price point, I thought I'd take this opportunity to compare it with a lint remover we already had in the office, to show just how different the two really are.

I used these two lint removers to care for some knitwear.

The first difference is in shape and size. The one I compared it with has a handle and a cord, whereas the STEAMERY is compact enough to hold comfortably in the palm of your hand.

Also, the comparison model had blades so sharp that I felt I had to work slowly and carefully, or risk cutting into yarn I didn't want to touch—it really required caution. Having a cord to deal with felt like a bit of a hassle, too.

STEAMERY, on the other hand, is rechargeable and hassle-free. Since you can use it even while it's plugged in and charging, you never have to put it off because the battery's dead. It's also nice and quiet. Even when I pressed a bit firmly, it never seemed to damage the knit fabric or come close to cutting it. So I wondered if that meant its cutting power was mild—but no, without needing any caution at all, the pills were drawn in and removed at a surprisingly fast pace.

▲Even though the level of caution required was different, both tools removed the pills cleanly, but the STEAMERY left a smoother finish with much less fuzz after cutting.

What surprised me during the care process was removing pills from the hem of the sweater. It's an especially delicate spot where you can easily cut important threads, so up until now I'd always applied the shaver bit by bit, very carefully. But with STEAMERY, I had no worries at all—I could just glide it around smoothly and quickly. With this, I feel like I could even remove pills while just moving my hands and watching TV.

▲It didn't tangle in the yarn of the garment itself and cleanly removed only the pills on the surface.

It removed the pills so cleanly and satisfyingly that I ended up digging through my closet to see if anything else had pilling, and I got not only the larger pills on a sweater but also the small pilling on a sweatshirt taken care of neatly. It's like a magic lint remover that lets you wear your well-loved favorites again as if they were brand new. (Since I couldn't find a sweater at that moment, I also tried it on the pilling of a sweatshirt.)

Cleaning it is easy, too—just twist the body to detach the parts as shown below, and throw away the neatly rolled-up ball of lint.

If you remove pills from a lot of clothes at once, lint will build up on the blades, but you can quickly clear it away with the included brush.

Since it's so compact, it seems like a great travel companion too. I think many people tend to wear the same clothes repeatedly, especially on longer trips, so having a lint remover this compact and easy to use—one that charges with a smartphone charging cable—brings a real sense of reassurance.

It can also be used to care for sports wear made of synthetic fabrics that have developed lint balls from rubbing against bags or shoes. But above all, as the season ahead calls for more wool socks, tights, scarves, gloves, and other knit accessories, I plan to put this to good use in my regular care routine, saying goodbye to lint balls and enjoying a pleasant autumn and winter out and about.

It's wonderful how lovely Nordic home appliances fit into any room. While some appliances prioritize style at the expense of function, STEAMERY is a formidable performer used even by luxury brands, and its ease of use truly lived up to that reputation. Even those who live with minimal household tools, or who prefer not to let their living space feel too "lived-in," should be able to care for their clothing without compromise, and cherish each piece of clothing they own.

▼Featured Product (Fabric Shaver (Lint Remover))