Hi, everyone, & Help! I'm looking for the best way to clean this dress. The wrist stain looks like blood -- and is stiff, feels like it's never been cleaned out. Cleaning mavens - what would you recommend for this one? Betsy
Betsy, it's a lovely print. Do you have a dry cleaner you can trust? Rayon should be dry cleaned. Guess it could be ketchup? That would be me, eating fries in a gorgeous vintage dress. Just kidding!
Oooh - I think you're spot on -- definitely has the tarry, old-ketchup feel! :> Does old rayon have to be dry-cleaned (nope, don't have a good cleaner). I thought it was the crepe rayon that had the shrink issue. Print rayon is the same? Or - is it a color bleed thing?
She must have loved fries then, no doubt about it. ;) Here's everything you've ever wanted to know about rayon: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5538.html Would it be possible to find a good dry cleaners, somewhere in the local vicinity? I do understand, as I have to travel to a nearby city, to my trustworthy dry cleaning establishment. You would want to be on the safe side.
I would test it - take a Q-tip soaked in cold water and swab the stain, blood won't clean out if its old (oxidized) but ketchup should come out just fine, althought it might leave a pale yellow stain. Rayon is iffy when it comes to cleaning but sometimes it comes up beautifully if its a good quality Bemberg rayon - cheap rayons will shrink, stretch, lose colour fastness -- all sorts of bad news. Again, test it on the end of the sleeve for colour fastness - if it doesn't shrink or bleed, then I would wash it in COLD water.
Jonathan is the ultimate authority, for real. Go for it, and best of luck. Jonathan, do you think the potential for a stain remaining would be lessened, or increased, with the dry cleaner, in the case that it is food-based, as opposed to blood, and assuming the dry cleaner is decent? Hypothetically, of course. OT, but J. I finally purchased a copy of your excellent book: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76982768@N00/3338746607/
Oh for goodness sake, I just noticed that your title clearly says Rayon. I'm such a dork sometimes! Sorry!
I wouldn't say I am the ultimate authority, I have just already made a lot of mistakes, so I learned from them! I am also a bit of a dirt phobic so I only really think dry cleaning works at deodorizing but doesn't really remove stains, at least not in my experience. I always prefer to wash when I can, but sometimes you just can't - rayon crepe, silk, interlined wool.... all bad news for washing. Yes, I have washed without success - gelatin sequins, rayon crepe and a few other booboos, however, in all fairness, they were all already write-offs because they were so dirty or stained...
Well, when it comes to shoes, and many other vintage fashion topics, I will commend you above all. I know what you are saying, in the matter of a good cold water wash. That being said, I have made some stupid mistakes in stain removal, thinking that I just had to hurry up, and remove some longstanding stain, when if I would've just calmed down, and analyzed the stain, in relation to the fiber at hand, things would have gone much better in the long run.
Spot treatment can be such a trial and error thing....if the dress is the sort of rayon that is cottony in feel, I would recommend soaking in an oxy product. I've had great success with these, but I'd exercise caution due to the nature of the fabric - set up a luke warm basin with the soaker and then emerse, watching to see if the colour runs. I'd check it frequently and soak no more than an hour - a lot of old dyes that seem okay can be problematic when soaked. Worst case scenario if the stain doesn't come out, you can always shorten the sleeves to three quarters or half. It's good to have options - great print too! Nicole
What Oxy product do you recommend, Nicole? I returned a little while ago from a trip to my local Long's in search of Goddard's Dry Clean Spot Removal which Sandra recommended yesterday. Unfortunately my neighborhood Long's doesn't carry it and never heard of it. I found it online but am not sure it can be shipped to Hawaii. I'll check out Walgreen's and then pursue getting it shipped to me. There were a number of Oxy products but I wasn't familiar with any of them and didn't buy one. Some of you probably remember the old style "cleaning fluid" which was highly flammable and has been unavailable, here for many years. Of course it left rings, sometimes. I think most of us want instant results with stains and often jump on something that we'd be better off leaving alone. I know I have thrown some (non-vintage) pieces away after I ruined them getting the stain out! I am a fanatic about cleaning dirty jewelry.
Aloha, Linn.... Not to hijack this thread, but I have noted you are on Oahu. Here on Maui, the Long's carries Goddards dry clean spray, and I also just found Whink there. I believe that is the dry-clean product you are referring to. I've tried both products several times, with varying degrees of success! I agree with Jonathan, that most drycleaners just deodorize the garment, and infrequently tackle stains! I just paid $14.75 to dryclean an ivory wool crepe Lacroix jacket that came back with every small stain on it! Proceeded to try the Whink, and it removed almost all of the small orangish staining that the jacket had! Live and Learn! (and sometimes sacrifice a garment in the process!!)
Aloha, Jeana- I didn't know there was another VFG member in the Islands. We'll have to arrange to meet some time. It's also great to know that Goddard's isn't "illegal" here and that I can probably find it by going to a different Long's, Walgreen's or Walmart. I wasn't thinking of Whink - something much earlier, but it's good to know Whink is available and I'll see if I can find some here on Oahu. It's extremely hard to find a good dry cleaner no matter where you live. I agree with Jonathan, too. Congratulations on removing the stains from your Lacroix! Linn
Linn, I use a product called Napisan. Not sure if it's available outside of Oz, but I'm sure something similar would be available. I rarely spot clean older garments, as it often lightens the colour - generally I soak and keep a good eye on it. deadlyvintage, I agree that your stain probably isn't blood. Old blood tends to go a dark brown so hopefully yours is something else (ketchup!). Nicole
Regarding Whink, I have some and have tried it several times, without much success. Is there a trick to using it, or will it only work on certain types of stains? I know that many people seem to swear by it, by so far I haven't seen why....
Thanks so much, I've learned much from this thread!! I know rayon is made from paper & therefore fragile but I never know how to treat it. I've been known to throw my rayon bias nightgowns & slips into the washing machine on occasion and they always wear like iron. On the other hand, I lost a beaut of a red crepe dress from a careful hand-washing & it still haunts me. But even crepe evening dresses had to be launderable in the 30s-40s, no?
Rayon is made from wood pulp (the same source as paper) but the process is much different. There are several caustic substances and processes used to create rayon, I can't remember all the variations but Bemberg is the best for quality and durability but its also the most polluting process and that is why its rarer to find - although it shows commonly in blouses and lingerie from the 1930s - 1950s, which is probably the rayon you have washed. Rayon crepe was dry cleaned in the 1930s and 30s. There has been dry cleaning, in one form or another, since the mid 19th century. In the 1930s/40s they used white gas (Naptha), perc (perchloroethylene) was introduced in the 1920s, but it was not in common use until after the war.
Thanks for the dry cleaning info, jonathan. I'll let you know how it goes. I *wish* there were a thread on cleaning categorized by fabric, with people posting before/ after pics of the fabric, era info, their cleaning technique & results. Then, after many contributions one could do a statistical analysis of what works best per fabric/detergent results etc etc. Of course, such an exhaustive thread must already be in existence here. or there...
You might want to read the Laundry Room Essentials thread on the VCA board on Ebay. http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/Vintage-Clothing-Accessories/Laundry-Room-Essentials/1000288830 There might be some useful info there.
