cleaning vintage garments

Aimee

Aimee

Registered Guest
hello all! recently came across a lot of vintage dresses, they seem to be from the 40s & 50s. they are extensively stained and i wanted to soak them in biz detergent in hopes of bringing them back to life.

my main concern is the metal zippers on the pieces, i'm not sure if soaking is good for them? also, would you advise removing the buttons prior to soaking? has anyone ever had any luck dying sun faded / stained black garments back to pure black?

any help would be much appreciated!
 
Hi Aimee, lucky you!

How you clean them will depend on the fabrics - if you have any rayon crepes, it's best to dry clean them which probably won't do anything for the stains. If you've got cottons or other weaves of rayons, you can probably soak them but be careful. Rayon when wet is easily ripped. Satins, taffetas, velvets, printed silks and tailored garments are best dry cleaned. You shouldn't soak silks or wools either.

Metal zippers will be fine - don't soak for more than an hour, longer than that you don't get any additional benefit anyway. If an hour's soak has improved the marks but they're still there, you can drain, rinse and soak again with fresh detergent.

You might want to remove the buttons, again depending on what they're made of. It's not a bad thing to do just be sure because you don't want to damage them. I also remove shoulder pads and soak separately - WW2 shoulder pads are often filled with all manner of things and new stains can come out and mark your fabric if you soak all together.

I hope this helps. If you're not sure about fabrics, please post clear close up photos and we can help identify them.
 
Aimee said:
... and i wanted to soak them in biz detergent in hopes of bringing them back to life.
Click to expand...

Another word of caution -- if you're reading those articles that recommend Biz, please note that the formula was changed around 10 to 11 years ago. It's no longer the gentle enzyme cleaner that it once was, and can be damaging to older fabrics.
 
I just ruined something I soaked in Biz because the color ran. I like it a lot for whites but now I'll be very careful about colors.
 
The dry cleaner ruined a vintage skirt of mine. I was devastated. Made me rethink ever taking another vintage item to the dry cleaner again. Then it just made me think that I was stupid as the item had a piece of "vinyl" on it in the shape of a diamond that was totally steamed off. I informed them they were all vintage pieces. Oh, I could have cried.

Speaking of, and pehaps it should be a new thread, are there people that repair vintage pieces? Say, find new vinyl material to reattach to said skirt, lol.
 
Yes, you've learned the hard way I'm afraid. No dry cleaning for vinyls.

There are people who repair and restore vintage: search in your area. I get enquiries from all over the world but will only service local customers.

Re: reattaching the vinyl piece, you could try a cobbler.
 
Circa Vintage said:
Yes, you've learned the hard way I'm afraid. No dry cleaning for vinyls.

There are people who repair and restore vintage: search in your area. I get enquiries from all over the world but will only service local customers.

Re: reattaching the vinyl piece, you could try a cobbler.
Click to expand...
Oh thank you. I have an excellent one! Would have NEVER thought of that!
 
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