Do-it-yourself Wedding Dress Cleaning
Why in the world would you want to clean your wedding gown yourself? After all, doesn't the tag say "Dry-clean only"? Isn't that an awful big risk to take on such an expensive and cherished garment?
You may consider cleaning your gown yourself to save money. Having a wedding gown cleaned can be quite expensive. And why? Most wedding gowns are made from washable fabrics. In fact, if your bridal gown fabric and lining are polyester, you should be easily be able to clean your own wedding dress by hand-washing it.
Before you make the decision to clean it yourself, look over your dress carefully. What is the fabric like? Is it covered with sequins and beads, or is it mainly fabric? Will you be able to hand press it afterwards or will you need to find a dry-cleaner to steam it?
Be aware that if your dress has a lot of tulle, hand pressing will be difficult. Tulle is usually nylon, which melts very easily. You can press tulle at very low temperatures with a pressing cloth, but you would need to be extra cautious. Be aware that tulle may have a slightly dimpled texture after cleaning. Spot cleaning may be best for gowns that are primarily tulle.
If your gown has a lot of beads and sequins, you can press it inside out if you have a thick cushion on your ironing board. The beads and sequins will press into the cushion allowing you to press the back of the fabric well.
If you prefer to have it professionally steamed after cleaning, call around and get a price for the job. Some dry-cleaners charge nearly as much for steaming and pressing as they do for the whole job. If your goal is to save money by cleaning the dress yourself, make sure you will save money before doing it. If your dress is quite dirty, wet cleaning will get the dress the cleanest, whether you do it or whether a professional wet-cleaner does it.
To really save money, you can also purchase
Do-it-yourself Preservation Kits and Preservation Boxes from our online Catalog. Or if you decide this job isn't for you, send it to us for professional cleaning and preservation.
Get your
FREE
Estimate today for your professional wedding dress
cleaning and Museum
Method or Heritage Box
preservation.
© Copyright 2007 Heritage Garment Preservation
Want to use this article in your ezine or web site? You can as long as you include the copyright notice above and the following copy: This article is part of the Wedding Gown Care Newsletter series created by Heritage Garment Preservation. Register for your Free newsletter at:
heritagegown.com/thanks/newsletter.php
