Heritage Garment Preservation » Heirloom Garment Restoration

Restore – Restyle – Reuse

Kathy Wright — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:26:49 +0000

There’s more than one reason to wear a vintage, heirloom dress! But certainly most people do so for the sentimental value the dress has. We recently restored and restyled this lovely communion gown to be used for a third generation. After restoring the color, we needed to find a way to bring it into the 21st century. The hemline was let down to add length to the gown, but unfortunately we couldn’t press out the permanent fold line left behind. So we covered the hemline with some trim instead. Darling!

Still wanting to add some more length, we found some similar nylon organza and made a coordinating ruffle. The result is precious and this sweet young girl wore the same gown her mother and grandmother wore for their first communion, but restyled and made her own. (Click on the pictures to see enlarged photos.)


Before Restoration and Restyling	After Restoration and Restyling	Gracie Hatfield on her First Communion Day

Beautiful Edwardian Silk Gown Renewed

Kathy Wright — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:53:20 +0000

We had the opportunity to work on an amazing dress this past week. The dress is about 100 years old but will be worn again this weekend for a new bride. It needed some alterations, repairs and light cleaning. The fabric was very fragile, resulting in hours and hours of hand stitching (the sewing machine would be too risky.) Made of beige silk, I was amazed at the incredible sewing skill of the original seamstress. It was originally all hand stitched with perfectly even, tiny stitches. I could imagine the seamstress taking weeks (or months) to create this gown in her spare time. Or more likely it was made for a wealthy woman and a hired seamstress sewed it.

Note how we added several inches in the back with a lace up so it can be worn by a modern woman. Women were much smaller a century ago! Our bride is located in Texas, so she sent the dress to us with her measurements and we adjusted our dress form with her measurements. It looked so nice that I hated to cover it with the train. We hope to add wedding pictures after her big day.


Back of gown before alterations	After alterations

Front view of finished gown	Back view of finished gown

Why You Shouldn’t Seal a Wedding Gown

Kathy Wright — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:11:16 +0000

Wow, a gown arrived yesterday with profound proof that you should never seal a wedding gown. This dress was sent to us from Ann Gutierrez. It has been “safely” in storage for many years. Now Ann is hoping her daughter will be able to wear the gown, but when she opened her preservation box, what a surprise! Terrible oxidized stains throughout the gown, the underarms are very yellow, and the area right in front, underneath the plastic window is yellowed.

How can this be possible? First of all, on testing the box we discovered it was not acid-free (an essential for preservation). Most likely it was dry-cleaned before storage, and it may have looked great at the time, but dry-cleaning does not remove water based substances such as champagne, clear soda, or even perspiration. So over time, these substances still on the gown have oxidized into very bad stains.

If the gown had not been sealed, Ann could have inspected it periodically and discovered these stains sooner.


Preservation box was sealed	Wedding gown has yellowed under plastic window

Oxidized Hemline stains	Oxidized Underarm stains

Winters Wedding Gown Restoration

Kathy Wright — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:14:00 +0000

We have been working on a wedding gown restoration for the Winter’s family in Maine. We haven’t determined whether it is white enough. As you can see from the photo, it is a lovely soft off white. We can probably push it a bit further to a brighter white if necessary. I have found that many people who have their vintage gowns restored do not want to remove all of the patina of age. They would still like it identifiable as “antique” or vintage, but remove distinct yellowing and oxidized spots.

This gown is a beautiful silk organza over acetate satin gown dating from the 1970′s. Penny Winters is hoping her daughter can wear the gown for her upcoming wedding. It was in very good condition so it was a perfect candidate for restoration, although their were a number of oxidized yellow spots and general yellowing on the gown. It has restored beautifully.

Carmina also did a beautiful job cleaning and repairing the veil, although when repairing tulle, you cannot make the repairs invisible. Fortunately there are some appliques on the headpiece that could be used to cover the veil repairs. Click on the smaller pictures to see up close photos.


Before	After

Veil Before	Veil After – click for close up

Communion Dress Restoration

Kathy Wright — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:32:53 +0000

We had the opportunity to restore this precious communion dress this week. It was sent to us from the Mosier family in Honolulu, Hawaii. They were uncertain as to whether it could be salvaged for their daughter’s upcoming communion. But the gown has historical significance, as it has been worn by two generations already. Fortunately, we were able to restore it and a third generation will be able to participate in this family tradition.