Hi Everyone! Vintage spot cleaning question. I have a vintage pink satin gown that I just got back from the dry cleaners. As I was putting it on the dress form I creased the skirt and decided to steam it a bit before photographing. The steamer dropped a water droplet on the skirt and now it won't disappear. I'm nervous to try to get it out as I think it will make it worse by using/adding more water. Curious to know if anyone has experienced this before with vintage fabric. If so, were you able to remove the water mark on your own or will it need to be dry cleaned again? (I hope not, fingers crossed). Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Pictures of the dress below, hoping that helps. Will upload the spot soon. Xo Brooklyn
Wowza. I have not had good luck removing water marks from satin except immersing the entire garment in water and then drying verrrry carefully.
Oh that's pretty. I have this advice for liquid stains. I learned this here in the forums. Water rings can sometimes be lessened by rewetting the stained area with a damp cloth. Moisten the area enough to obscure the ring. Then use a dry cloth, a blow dryer, or an iron (on the setting appropriate for the fabric) on the edges of the dampened area first. What you are doing is dissipating the edge of the ring, then quickly drying the area so that there is not a new ring. I have been able to use this technique even on dry clean only items—and including satin.
Thank you for the advice! This worked like a charm! I used a q-tip to control the amount and placement of water. It took a few times of re-wetting/drying to remove the water spot completely. So happy I didn't have to dry clean the dress again. Thanks so much!
That's what I was afraid of! I get so mad at myself for tying to 'spot clean' certain vintage fabrics only to make it worse with water. But the re-wetting/drying worked for this dress. Thank goodness!
I'm so glad Maggie/D's trick worked for you! I'll have to file it away for the future. I love my Jiffy steamer, but I have had spitting accidents in the past. Best prevention for me was making sure the nozzle and the hose are always upright; ie, no downward loop where the steam can condense and then sputter out.
