We have been using Archival Intercept® for years as a bottom sheet inside all of our preservation boxes.  We also sell it in our online store for do-it-yourself textile preservation.  However, our new Premium preservation box is lined with Archival Intercept® protection.   It’s built right into the box.

Our Premium preservation box is is not recommended for silk fabrics but is great for all synthetic fabrics, as well as cotton, linen and most natural fibers.   For silk wedding gowns (or other animal fibers such as fur or leather) we will use and recommend Archival Intercept® bottom sheet along with our un-buffered preservation box.

We will be using our new Premium box for all of our customer’s (non silk) wedding gown cleaning and preservation and selling it in our online store.  Enjoy the new technology!

Ms Miller’s wedding dress has a detachable train, so she sent the gown and train to us and asked us to process only the train first. If the results were good, we would then restore the dress as well. If she was not happy with the restoration, she could make a ring bearer pillow out of it instead. Fortunately for Joan, her train turned out great.

We are never 100% certain exactly how each dress will turn out. We use several different chemicals depending on the fabric fiber, age of gown, sheen of fabric, etc. Every dress is different! I was personally thrilled with the color after restoration. I’ve shown it here with the dress which has not been restored. The picture really does not do it justice. The color of the train (shown on right of gown) is great – a very nice off white.

When in doubt, test it out!

After each event, my daughter’s dress definitely needed attention. Fortunately for her, my business is cleaning wedding dresses, so I handled everything from spot cleaning food spills, hemline cleaning after the first event, to a complete cleaning after the first reception and before the second reception. Wow, a lot of work for just one garment.

What about you?  I am dying to know how everyone else handles their wedding gown between events.

• Did you take your dress to the cleaners between events?
• Were you impeccably clean and careful so you made no messes?
• Or did your Aunt Betsy jump in and touch up the messes?

Please tell us what kind of care your wedding dress received between events and I will send you an coupon for $25 off your wedding gown preservation.   I’m dying to know how you did it!

Robyn after wedding Great photos by M Portraits	What a mess! Hemline after Virginia reception

While 75% of wedding dresses are made of synthetic fabrics which are easier to clean and care for (some exceptions), that other 25% of silk wedding gowns require skill and experience for proper care. Many workers at dry-cleaning shops are just minimum wage staff, with little training on specific fabrics and stain removal. Buyer beware! Catastrophes can occur.

We received an email this past week from a very unhappy bride. She took her beautiful wedding gown to her local dry-cleaner the Wednesday after her wedding last month. But when she picked it up a few days later, she found that the previously white gown fabric had changed to a yellowish color and the satin had lost it’s sheen as well. She wrote to us asking if we could fix the problems.

I suggested that the first thing she do is contact the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute who provides a service of testing the dress to determine what had transpired. The DLI looked at the gown and confirmed my suspicions, that the dress had been cleaned in water with improper chemicals (probably alkaline). The color can be restored (acidic treatment) but the sheen cannot. This bride discovered the hard way that not all wedding gown cleaners are alike.

Before Cleaning	After Cleaning

Do your research before taking your wedding gown to your local cleaner. Please read more about proper wedding gown cleaning and screening your local dry cleaner by reading our Wedding Gown Cleaning and Preservation Guide.

But last week we were featured in a Wall Street Journal article by Deborah Blumberg. That’s exciting!  Several months ago we cleaned and preserved a wedding gown for her.  We had no idea that the Deborah was actually researching wedding gown cleaning and preservation and chose our company to be one of four to compare in her article.

Deborah indicated in her article that the stains all came out of the wedding gown that they sent us, and that our “presentation was the best” of the four.  We do try hard.  You could say that we are perfectionists.  We’re thrilled when we can return a gown to pre-worn condition.  That is our goal  Once in a while it’s great to be noticed.

Read the full article on wedding dress cleaning and preservation in the Wall Street Journal.

We recently cleaned and preserved a precious christening gown with several bonnets for one of our customers, Heather H. One of the bonnets was indeed constructed from a handkerchief.  My own daughter will be getting married in August and I will be sure that she carries a beautiful handkerchief just for this purpose.

Take a look at the photo of heather’s bonnet to see how simple it looks. Click on the photo for a close up. You can find instructions to make this bonnet at: http://bumblebeelinens.com/hankiebonnet.php Heather sent me this poem about the handkerchief bonnet.

TREASURE HANDKERCHIEF BONNET POEM by unknown  I’m just a little hankie As square as can be But with a small stitch or two A bonnet I will be. I’ll be worn from the hospital Or on my christening day And after that be folded Then carefully put away. When on that future wedding day So we’ve always been told The well dressed bride must always Wear something that is old. So what could be more fitting Then to find little me And with a few fine stitches snipped A wedding hankie be. And if perchance it’s a boy Someday he’ll surely wed Then his bride can have the hankie Once worn upon his head

Tulle from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s holds up much better. We recently had the opportunity to restore this vintage veil for a M. Browne’s upcoming August wedding. The veil was made by the bride’s grandmother and worn by her aunt in the 1970′s and then a cousin in about 1980. So it truly is a family heirloom.

The upper portion of the veil was in excellent condition, but the lower portion had numerous brown spots. Upon close inspection we discovered that the lace on the upper portion was hand stitched but glued on the lower portion. We believe the oxidation of the glue may have caused the spotting.

Because the bride is wearing ivory, we decided to treat the brown spots separately instead of the entire veil together. This kept the veil from going too white with our whitening chemicals. We are thrilled with the final results. This bride’s “something old” will be a treasured vintage veil.

Vintage lace before restoration	Vintage lace after restoration
Full veil after restoration

Gravity – it’s very useful for keeping us all on the ground, but not very helpful for storing textiles. If you are like most people, you have probably had a sweater or two ruined by hanging on wire hangers. Which is why you now always hang sweaters from padded hangers. Padded hangers protect our sweaters by distributing the weight of the sweater on a broader, rounder, less angled surface.

We use this same principle by distributing the weight of your wedding gown with cotton twill tape straps that we sew into to your strapless gown. We generally utilize the original straps attached by the gown manufacturer to hang the dress (usually found on the sides of the dress.) But we add at least four more straps that we sew into your wedding gown bodice lining. Two straps are sewn in the front, and two in the back, making six points of weight distribution. Additional straps may be sewn into waistlines for exceptionally heavy dresses. The cotton straps can be easily removed with a seam ripper if the dress is to be worn again.

The extra straps distribute the weight of the wedding gown evenly around the gown so that no area is distorted. Also, wedding gown trains are rolled in acid-free tissue and rolled up and sit at the bottom of our preservation bag. This also helps to reduce the weight of the gown on the upper portion of the gown.

Cotton straps are stitched into lining of strapless gowns for support for Museum Method™ wedding gown preservation	Acid-free tissue covers the straps before the gown is placed in our preservation bag

Wedding gown restoration is a service that we have been perfecting for about 8 years. During those years, we have taken professional training classes and we have performed numerous wedding gown restorations and gained a tremendous knowledge with that experience. We have learned that successful wedding gown restoration is a combination of Art and Science.

The science part is the knowledge of the various chemicals we can use to whiten aged wedding gowns. For instance, we have learned whether to use an alkaline or an acidic chemical and what temperature the chemicals will work best.

While the science portion is critical, I believe the Art portion of wedding gown restoration may be more important. This Art is really the understanding of the chemicals and how specific fabrics, in different conditions, and at various ages will respond to those chemicals. With each wedding gown restoration, our knowledge continues to grow and gives us greater confidence as we work on individual gowns.

Our goal is to restore each wedding gown to the best condition possible. Some gowns can be made almost white again, while others a soft ivory may be the best possible outcome, without risking damage to the gown. The oldest gowns we have worked on have been over 100 years old. But it is not uncommon for us to restore wedding gowns that are only 30 years old. So the conditions of the wedding gowns really do vary tremendously.

With each gown, we analyze the fabric content and the condition of the gown and then make a determination of which chemical to use, what temperature to use it at, and how long to soak the gown. It is really exciting to see the transformation that can occur. Occasionally, we will utilize more than one chemical in hopes of achieving the best results.

We restored the wedding gown below this past week, and utilized two different chemicals to whiten the gown as well as possible. A third chemical was used on the veil. We are really excited about the end result and I am kicking myself because I forgot to take the “before” pictures! Nevertheless, please enjoy the “after” pictures.

Howard wedding gown after restoration	Howard wedding veils after restoration