Preserving June Wedding Memories
You carefully planned your wedding. Then you spent hours trying on dresses, finally finding the perfect gown. Once the day is over how do you care for your beautiful dress to either preserve it as a keepsake, or perhaps to share with your own daughter to wear on her wedding day. We are here to help – you will need a professional’s help before storing this treasure.
Beware of invisible stains from food, beverages, and body oil. If these stains are not properly cleaned, they may become permanent. Therefore, it is important to point out any stains or spills to your cleaner before cleaning.
Most wedding gowns have some sort of decorative trim. Be sure to inspect these trims with us prior to cleaning since many trims are not made to withstand the drycleaning process. For example, many beads, glitter, sequins, and laces are attached to gowns with adhesives that dissolve during drycleaning. Some beads and glitter are made of plastics or covered with surface coatings that are not solvent- resistant. In many of these cases, the trim becomes separated from the dress or altered in some way.
In some cases, decorative trims yellow as their finishes oxidize. An ivory or ecru trim may lose its color and no longer match the gown if a dye component is lost in cleaning. Color failures of this type are due to poor colorfastness of the dye, not to improper cleaning.
Get with the Program: Recycle Your Hangers
If you are a frequent drycleaning customer, you may have more hangers in your closet than you know what to do with. Rather than throw out the ones you are not reusing, why not recycle them by returning them to us?
More than just freeing up closet space, recycling hangers is good for the environment – which is one reason many cleaners participate in recycling programs. Our professional cleaning association has pledged to recycle more than 10 million hangers in 2012, and we’re working on reaching 25 million. Most hangers can be steam processed for cleanliness and reused. Hangers that are unsuitable for reuse are often sold for scrap metal to avoid unnecessary waste.
We can do this together – let’s recycle!
Poison Ivy
Q. My daughter had poison ivy last week and I am worried that the clothes she wore will cause her to relapse. Is there anything I can do to be sure she won’t get it again from her clothes?
A. Both drycleaning and laundering are acceptable cleaning methods for removing poison ivy from clothing. Laundering is preferred because of the multiple flushes used in this process. Also, it is best to wear gloves and wash the contaminated clothing separately. Casual contact with your daughter’s clothing should be okay, but be sure to wash any areas that contact the clothing with soap and water. This precaution will usually prevent a rash from appearing.
Garments must contain sap from the plant to transmit these chemical contaminants, and not all people are sensitive to them. Remember to wash them separately so the poison won’t be able to spread to other garments.
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