Need cleaning advice on satin/charmeuse Qipao

[Wanda13]

I found a qipao dress at a flea market yesterday and i need some advice on how to best get rid of the yellow/orange armpit and collar stains. Any ideas? I felt like it was better to ask before doing anything to it.

 

[dollsntrolls]

I recommend doing a burn test to figure out the fiber. Silk and rayon will have issues with color bleed and transfer from the embroidery (and, possibly just as badly at the dry cleaner as doing it yourself). From what little I can see, this may be later and an acetate blend - which you could soak yourself, and use color catchers or synthrapol to help catch loose dye. A lot of these were made for the tourist trade or sold cheaply in markets in the US, and not made for continual use and cleaning, meaning - the embroidery is often not color fast.

 

[Wanda13]

I recommend doing a burn test to figure out the fiber. Silk and rayon will have issues with color bleed and transfer from the embroidery (and, possibly just as badly at the dry cleaner as doing it yourself). From what little I can see, this may be later and an acetate blend - which you could soak yourself, and use color catchers or synthrapol to help catch loose dye. A lot of these were made for the tourist trade or sold cheaply in markets in the US, and not made for continual use and cleaning, meaning - the embroidery is often not color fast.

I did burn some loose threads that were hanging, and they burned really fast left some melted ?plastic? behind. Is that a clue to what it could be?

 

[MagsRags]

I have a fiber burn test chart saved to my computer and refer to it on the regular. This article in the VFG's Fabric Resource offers a similar Fiber Burn chart near the bottom of the page. Melting is a pretty reliable clue that it is some sort of synthetic.

 

[Circa Vintage Clothing]

It sounds like there's a synthetic component. If you check your supermarket they should have a spot cleaner that is suitable: I would apply to the interior to minimise staining.