Dying a 40s dress?

melanostalgia

melanostalgia

Registered Guest
Hi guys! Today I came back from a second hand clothing market with two gems from 1940. Overall they are in good shape, but unfortunately both dresses have discoloration problems. One is not so bad because the fading is more or less even, but the other one has discolored very unevenly. Both dresses used to be black and both turned into a brownish color. So now my question is; would it be possible to give the dresses a fresh black dye job? I'm pretty sure the second one is made of a rayon crepe. The first one seems to be rayon crepe on the outside too, but on the inside the fabric looks completely different. It's very shiny and smooth, almost silky. Detail pictures are from the first dress. I wouldn't say they are unwearable in their current state, but they would definitely live up from a fresh dye. But, of course, ruining them would be worse. I hope you guys can give me some advice on this.

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Great finds! Both dresses look like rayon crepe here on my PC - and the problem with that is, if it gets wet, it gets hard and shrinks - washing it ruins it, dry-cleaning is the only way to clean this kind of rayon. For that reason, I would also absolutely not try to dye it, as that would have the same effect on the fabric. I've had some scary experiences with 40s/50s rayon crepe just trying to remove some spots...

Karin
 
Karin is right 100%. Rayon crepe will literally shrink right before your eyes when it comes into contact with water. I made that mistake early on in my vintage collecting and it was a painful one. Not only did my dress retract into a child size garment, it also dumped it's dye. I wouldn't try to dye this type of fabric as you'll likely ruin the dresses.
 
Oh no :( is it really that bad? I had indeed heard that rayon crepe shrinks, but that same person told me that it is no problem because it returns to its original shape when you steam it? Is this not true then?

I sure am glad I didn't try washing them, phew!
 
I agree with the others: I love rayon crepe dresses, have worn hundreds over the past thirty years and made all kinds of mistakes with them.

I find that silk crepe can be stretched back into shape - the threads are strong but rayon is a reconstituted fabric, it lacks the integrity of natural fabrics and is very fragile when wet. If it's not the shrinking that will break your heart, it might just rip on you.
 
Ok, I will definitely keep them away from the water then! I guess I should say thanks for making all those mistakes so that I won't have to!

Another quick question; the dresses don't have shoulder pads, but I'm assuming they should? One dress has press studs at the shoulders and the other has an extra flap of fabric at each shoulder.
 
If the 'extra flap' is a double layer of fabric this is a form of shoulder pad, just a very slight one. The press studs may indicate it was worn with lingerie straps.
 
Here are some pics of the shoulders. The 'extra flap' is only one layer. I can imagine it might have been put there for comfort? The second one shows a 'fabric loop' that closes with a snap on one side.

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The fabric loop is a bra stay. You unsnap it, slip it under your bra strap, resnap it. This keeps those pesky straps from peeking out, as there was a time when revealing one's undergarments wasn't considered chic :hysterical:.
 
melanostalgia said:
Here are some pics of the shoulders. The 'extra flap' is only one layer. I can imagine it might have been put there for comfort?.
Click to expand...

The 'flap' looks like it is designed to give a little extra 'puff' to the puffed shoulder of the sleeve. When the dress is the right way round, does it sit inside the top of the sleeve, rather than on the shoulder? If so it's not really a shoulder pad, but a 'sleeve puff' - I don't know if there a proper technical term for that. Sometimes these are padded, but yours looks like it wasn't, just made to give a little extra shape to the top of the sleeve, by the stiffness of the fabric used.

The other are lingerie snaps, as Liza says - for bras, but also for the straps of slips and camisoles.
 
Jody says the name of those little puffer things are "sleeve heads" although actually, the part of the sleeve in which they sit are the sleeve head. Maybe they're "sleeve head pads" or "sleeve head puffs" or some such.

Yes, Ruth, for any undergarment, certainly. We just call them bra stays on this side of the pond, but you'd definitely run the thing under whatever straps might stray. Camisole, slip, what have you.
 
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