Heritage Garment Preservation

Can’t Afford Wedding Gown Care? Think Again

Kathy Wright — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:47:42 +0000

You won’t find hand cleaned wedding gowns and museum quality preservation at a more affordable price than ours anywhere. Last fall we lowered our prices without lowering our quality one bit. But if your budget is still a little tight, don’t put off your wedding gown care any longer, because we now offer a convenient payment plan that will make quality wedding gown care easier to afford than ever before.

Your invoice can be divided into several payments. You determine how often the payments are made, as long as full payment is made within 90 days of receiving your gown, or you can follow our standard payment plan:

The first payment will be paid when we receive your gown and set up your payment plan.
The second payment will be charged four weeks after your payment plan is initiated.
The last payment will be made eight weeks after the payment plan is initiated and your dress will be cleaned and preserved and returned to you at that time.

You will be charged a small fee of $10 to set up your payment plan. It will be added to your total invoice. Your second and third payments will be charged to your credit card (or your checking account) automatically. No worry, no fuss.

Take a minute and get a new estimate if you received your estimate before our price reduction. Not sure? Get a new estimate just in case.

So don’t put off your wedding gown care a minute longer because you don’t have the funds right now. Just be sure to write “Payment plan” in the comments section of the order form when you Order.

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

Beware of Low Quality Preservation Boxes

Kathy Wright — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:10:57 +0000

We have recently received a number of wedding gowns that had been “preserved” previously in “acid-free” boxes. These wedding gowns had some significant yellowing and we are now in the process of restoring them. So how did this happen? Shouldn’t an acid-free box protect the gown?

We checked the quality of the acid-free boxes with a pH testing pen and discovered that the boxes were not acid-free. They may have been classified as acid-free when the gown was stored, but were probably not “lignin free.” Or they may have had an “acid-free” outer layer, but was not “acid-free” throughout. Over time the lignin and the acidic layers inside migrated, making the preservation box detrimental instead of protective.

Be sure your wedding gown or heirloom garment is safely stored. All of our preservation boxes and tissue are acid-free and lignin free. Our buffered boxes are buffered with 3% calcium carbonate which helps keep the boxes acid-free indefinitely. They are safe for most textiles. Read more about acid-free paper.

Because the calcium carbonate buffering could damage fabrics made from animals (i.e. silk, wool and fur) our Un-buffered boxes, made of inert polypropylene are safer for them. All of our preservation materials are the highest quality available, no shortcuts here.

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

Strapless Wedding Gowns with Museum Method Preservation

Kathy Wright — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:03:21 +0000

One question that we are often asked is how we preserve strapless gowns with Museum Method Preservation. It’s a good question, as so many gowns are strapless today. Many others have thin “spaghetti” straps, which certainly should not bear the weight of the gown for a long period. I’ll answer this important question and add a couple of photographs for illustration. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

First, we utilize the gown’s hanging straps that are usually located in the under arm area. Occasionally these have been removed for comfort or convenience. If this is the case, we sew the hanging straps back into the gown.

Second, we sew cotton twill tape straps into the gown lining by hand. We sew two ties in front and two in back. These can be tied together at the shoulders to hang the gown securely. This is all that is usually needed for most gowns. But occasionally, a gown may be unusually heavy and require additional support.

For very heavy gowns, longer straps are sewn into the lining in the waist area and also tied at the shoulders. All of the straps help distribute the weight of the gown evenly. The straps can be easily removed with a seam ripper if the gown is worn again.

Finally, a final layer of tissue is addedfor aesthetic purposes to the gown preservation to cover up the ties.

The hanger and tissue fill in the gown and it almost appears to be hanging on a mannequin. The straps and the “body” the gown hangs on give it plenty of support. All materials used in the preservation are acid-free and will help keep your gown in the very best condition.

Gutierrez Gown Update

Jennifer — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:19:54 +0000

I am very excited to update you on the sealed box gown we received that was in bad shape from being sealed in a box for MANY years. I am so excited at the results from our restoration process and I know our customer will be very excited too! We were able to brighten the dress, remove the yellowing on the front of the dress, remove the dark perspiration stains under the arms and remove all the brown oxidizing stains. Take a look at the the finished gown and compare it with the pictures we took when we received it. Wow, what an amazing difference!

Gutierrez Dress after Restoration

Lace after Restoration

Under arm after Restoration

Questions Anyone?

Kathy Wright — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:31:08 +0000

Have you got a question about wedding gown or heirloom garment cleaning, restoration, or preservation? Add your question as a comment and we’ll see if we can help you out.

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.