cleaning advice

Vintagiality

Vintagiality

VFG Treasurer
Hi all,

Looking for advice on a couple of cleaning related questions. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

1. After washing lined dresses, I frequently experience some level of shrinkage which is different for the top fabric compared to the lining which creates a lot of work to fix. How do you go about avoiding this issue?

2. How do you clean wool garments? I have been really struggling with that and have ruined more than one dress and coat.

4. How do you clean two color items? I especially have trouble with black and white garments. Polka dots, stripes or bodice color different from bottom.

3. How do you clean items with pleats?


I know I could take them to the dry cleaner but I have found this to not work well both from a cost and quality standpoint. Sometimes stains seem worse after dry cleaning or I even get stains that weren’t apparent before come out (like armpit stains).

Thanks
Victoria
 
Hi Victoria,

Lots of good questions!

First, where do you live? I'm just trying to calculate how difficult it would be to find a dry cleaner that would do a better job.

On the lining issue, it certainly depends on the item and its details, but I personally would take many such items to a dry cleaner to avoid shrinking. Besides shrinkage, washing can hurt the structure of interfacing and lining fabric with body; it can do the same to the outer fabric depending on its fiber and finish. If the item is made of one washable fiber, such as cotton with a cotton lining, and has no inner structure, it might well be washable. But in any case, hand wash in cool or cold water, check first to make sure the dyes don't bleed, and remove rustable metal (such as covered buttons) and shoulder pads prior to immersing in the wash water. Here's a blog post I wrote that might explain more: How to Clean Vintage Clothing.

Woven wool should be dry cleaned, whereas many wool knits can be hand washed. Again, anything with structure really needs to be dry cleaned.

The colors and washing question: Do you wash in cold water? You should always test for dye bleed issues before washing something for the first time (I describe this in the post linked above). Hand wash individual items separately. Color catchers are sheets that are manufactured to attract and form a chemical bond with loose dyes in water while washing. I have found these useful (but not flawless) for machine washing, and even for hand washing.

Once a dye has bled, try using either RIT Dye Fixative (be careful not to confuse the fixative with dye remover), or a detergent such as Synthrapol. Both these products are designed to bind to loose dyes and remove them from the fabric.

The pleats issue depends on the pleat and the fabric. Are you referring to the fact that the pleats soften or even go away when washed? There are perma-pleats and then there are pleats that have to be pressed each time, so I guess it depends what you have to work with.

Also possibly of interest: Stain Removal Tips

I hope that helps a little!
 
Maggie,

Thank you so much for the advice and for sharing your blog post. Lots of great information. I am in Boston and I have tried a few dry cleaners but I didn’t love the results and they are really too expensive when the item is meant to be resold. I wear a lot of vintage and do dry clean many of the more delicate or wool items but at over $20 per dress or coat it is just tough for resale value.

I mostly machine wash 70s polyester on a cold cycle and so far have thankfully had no issues.

I always try to soak and hand wash other items in cold or lukewarm water but even then I frequently get the lining issue because it always seems to be made of a fabric that doesn’t shrink at all or as much as the top fabric.

As to color bleed, I just tried washing a beautiful 50s cocktail dress and the black skirt bled heavily into the white bodice which is now a purplish hue after I tried fixing it by soaking in Carbona.

Wool is by far my biggest enemy especially in coats and suits. I took a nice wool Mr Mort dress to the dry cleaner the other day and it came back smaller (they said I am imaging this) and had brown stains (they said they were always there) which at a minimum seemed far more prominent after the dry cleaning if I hadn’t noticed them before. Another red cotton blend dress “developed” armpit stains after treatment.

Finally, I was referring to pleats that I imagine have to be pressed each time. How does one even do that?

Thank you so much for your help. I will definitely try Synthrapol.

Regards,
Victoria
 
Some things will come back more noticeable from a dry cleaning. I've seen certain stains darken, and/or the rest of the garment brightens which brings out the stain. Some spots will become holes when cleaned.

On the pleats, if you are needing a way to hem sharp pleats, this tutorial might help:
I would also say that you should always press fabric with the least heat necessary to do the job, and I'd recommend using a press cloth to keep from adding press shine. Another tip is that you can hold the pleats in place at the hem with hairpins (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/80501912062223796/). No matter how you do it, it takes practice for sure!
 
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