This Compact Gem Saves All My Sweaters and Makes Them Look Brand-New (It Works Every Time!)

Despite the fact that I live in a place that doesn’t experience the traditional four seasons (Hawaii follows its own two main seasons), I love to wear a good sweater all year long (no seasonal wardrobe swaps for me!). What I don’t love, though, is how pilly some of my favorite knits get when they experience a little too much wear and tear. Fortunately fabric shavers exist, but not all of them are created equally (something I’ve had to learn the hard way — RIP to one of my favorite cozy white sweaters).

A fabric shaver is a tool that removes pilling, lint, and fuzz to restore the appearance of your fabrics and home textiles, such as clothing and furniture. Some fabric shavers are manual versus electric, have different blade material, and offer varied settings and methods of lint collection (built-in, varying sizes, or none at all). I’ve been looking for my perfect match for a while now, and then along came the Steamery’s Pilo 2 Fabric Shaver, a gentle-yet-effective fabric shaver. 

As I mentioned, the Pilo 2 Fabric Shaver is an incredibly gentle-yet-effective fabric shaver. It has six precision razor blades (double the amount of the Pilo 1 version) and a larger surface area for shaving — its dimensions are 67 by 67 by 93 millimeters. To remove the collected lint, you must take off the shaver part and use the cleaning brush. It has a short charging time (two-and-a-half hours); in fact, you can shave while it charges via a USB-C charging cord. And when fully charged, it can run for two hours straight.

The Steamery’s Pilo 2 Fabric Shaver can be used on all types of materials, including delicate knits. It’s just strongly recommended on the site to be careful when dealing with anything fragile, and to make sure to gently sweep over and not press into your garments.

Firstly, I love the design of the Pilo 2 Fabric Shaver. Available in four colors — charcoal, sand, sage, and rose — the Pilo 2 is super smooth and sleek-looking, almost like a half-pill shape (fitting for something that removes pilling!). It’s also super lightweight, portable, and compact; it fits perfectly in one hand. 

To put it to the test, I used it on a brown sweater I’ve had in my wardrobe rotation lately. It’s definitely well-loved and showing signs of slight pilling. First I made sure the Pilo 2 was fully charged. Then I laid my sweater on a flat surface (my desk was the perfect place for this). I remembered to not shove the fabric shaver against the sweater; instead I gently swept over the pills. It’s recommended to work in circles and gradually add pressure as needed. 

Hearing the collection of pills is deeply satisfying (second to seeing all the fuzz that’s accumulated inside the shaver). I didn’t fill it up entirely this time around, but the website says that you’ll know it’s getting full when you feel and hear the machine start to run slower. 

I recommend the Steamery’s Pilo 2 Fabric Shaver for anyone in the market for a stellar fabric shaver. Come winter, I can see how this fabric shaver will be in peak use for anyone who needs to de-pill any of their sweaters, scarves, blankets, and other cozy knits.

Buy: Steamery’s Pilo 2 Fabric Shaver, $65