How Can I Preserve My Wedding Dress Without Risking Bankruptcy??
LAPOWD
Hi Jolie!!! Too much fun hanging with you last week! As we chatted about, I would love it if you can provide tips and tricks to cleaning a wedding dress and then preserving it?! Dry cleaners and companies cost a fortune so I'm looking for any hacks :)
As you can tell from the question, this one comes to me from someone I know IRL — I asked if she'd email me so I could use the Q here, but I also got a bunch of followup information from her about her dress, in particular, when we talked in person last week.
The big question I had was what type of damage the dress sustained on the big day and, in this case, it's pretty minimal: A lot of dirt and grime on the hem, but no stains from spilled food or drink. Even if there were stains from food or drink, unless they were really major stains (like a red wine down the bodice sitch), the advice I'll give here also applies to removing those. ALSO! The advice here can be used to clean formal dresses of any kind and, as we swing through wedding season, you may find them helpful after tromping around on assorted lawns and beaches in your ankle-length finest.
Okay so with that bit of extra context, let's get into how to clean and preserve a wedding dress!
The Stuff You'll Need
I'm linking to products here so you can see exactly what I'm referring to — none of this is through an affiliate link or anything like that. I'm not here to make money, I'm just here to have funsies! — along with a general overview of why I'm telling you you need it.
Plastic Sheeting
Trimaco SuperTuff Plastic Drop Cloth
Regardless of where you'll perform this operation, I want you to lay plastic sheeting down in your workspace to protect the dress while you clean it. You can use a clean white flat sheet for this, but I’d rather have you in plastic because if the surface you’re working on gets wet, dirt or wood stain or whatever could seep up through the sheet and into the dress.
Laundry Brush
BFWood Laundry Stain Brush
I just interviewed a hat expert from Stetson (never a dull!) and he shared the best tip about clothing and accessories brushes: "Don't forget the golden rule: Use dark bristles for dark hats and light bristles for light hats." Same thing goes for clothing, especially white wedding dresses — make sure you get a fabric brush with white bristles for this jobbie.
White Cloths
AIDEA White Microfiber Cleaning Cloths 8PK
You can use any clean white cloth — a white washcloth is the perfect size! — but it must be white for the same reason you gotta use a white-bristle brush. Dye transfer is real, my friends. But you know that, because you read all about it here in this'n cleaning advice newsletter! Also you'll need a few cloths, I would say at least three or four?
Dawn Dish Soap
Dawn EZ-Squeeze Ultra Dish Soap Dishwashing Liquid
Dawn dish soap is what I'm recommending for the stain removal portion of the proceedings, but you are not beholden to Dawn. You can use whatever mild dish soap you have, or dilute some liquid laundry detergent for the job. But the reason I'm recommending Dawn specifically is this:
If you promise not to tell anyone, I'll spoil the results of a recent test of lipstick stain removers I conducted that hasn't yet been published. (Chelsea if you're reading this no you're not!) Of all the lipstick stain removers I tested, the only one that completely removed every single speck of dark red lipstick from a white cloth napkin was … Dawn dish soap. I'm not gonna lie, you guys, I was kinda pissed. Like? THAT'S IT?? THE DISH SOAP??? I had the WD-40 out and everything! But yeah, the boring old Dawn dish soap worked the best of all the stain removers so let's stick with it for the wedding dresses.
Archival Tissue
The Linen Lady's Acid Free Archival Tissue Paper
After we clean The Dress, we're going to don our sexiest, librarianest glasses and engage in some light Archivist cosplay. Kinky! This is going to be the coolest part, just because it's not something most of us do often, if ever: We're going to stuff and wrap the dress for preservation! Acid-free archival tissue is what you want for this.
Finally, when the dress is clean and stuffed and wrapped (again, kinky!) it will go into an archival box for long term storage. The archival box is designed specifically for the safekeeping of textiles.
How You'll Clean The Big White Dress
Step 1: The Sheeting!
Find a big roomy bit of floorspace. Move a coffee table if you must! You need a flat surface with enough room to spread out and work, and the floor will be the best spot for the operation. Got a huge dining room table? Sure, that will do the trick too.
Lay your plastic sheet out on whatever surface you'll use as your base of operations. Then lay the dress on top, with her arms out at about a 45 degree angle. Tell her she's pretty.
Step 2: The Brushing!
The brushing is the step you're least likely to have thought of, and the most likely to ignore in a "how important can it be" kind of way and I need you to promise that you will not skip the brushing.
The brushing is going to address all of the dirt on the hem of the dress, and it's incredibly important that you remove as much of that dirt as possible before introducing liquid cleaners. If you skip this step, what will happen is that all that dirt will turn to mud the minute you start applying the dish soap solution, flooding the stains and making a bigger mess. So, we brush.
Start from about half an inch above where the line of dirt begins. Place the brush on the fabric and, using a quick, light, and gentle motion, brush in one direction toward the hem of the dress. Pick the brush up, and move it to the next section, again starting above the soil line and brushing down in one direction toward the hem of the dress. You are, essentially, sweeping dirt off and away from the hem of the dress. As you work, periodically use your hand to brush dirt out of the bristles of the brush. If the brush gets very dirty, wipe it with a cleaning wipe and then dry it very well with a paper towel before getting back to the important work of brushing. Work all the way around one side of the dress, then turn her over and brush the other side.
Listen, I know it sounds hopelessly fussy but 1. you have to do it and 2. you guys are actually gonna love this part. Brush her like a pony!
Step 3: The Unsoiling!
Once you've brushed away as much loose soil as possible, you can start to spot treat any remaining stains on the hem, as well as on the body of the dress. We'll also have you go in and give the pits a going over because: pits.
Fill a medium sized bowl less than halfway up with cool water, and add one to two drops of dish soap. NOT MORE! We are using a very sparing amount of soap here, because soap residue will oxidize over time and cause a whole new set of stains, which we do not want. So! A Very Sparing Amount (say it Britishly to make it feel like an occasion). Then, you will bring that bowl over to your work area, along with your stack of white cloths, you will dip one cloth in the solution and then — and at least one of you sees this coming! — you will wring the cloth out until it is damp but not dripping. Have you missed me shouting at you "DAMP, NOT WET!"?? I know moms aren't supposed to have favorites, but there's no such rule for Clean People and I have to confess that DAMP, NOT WET! is one of my absolute favorites. Sorry, Bleachie.
With your damp, virtually suds-less cloth, you will gently wipe any soiled or stained areas. As with the brushing, when cleaning the hem of the dress, start just above the dirt line and wipe downwards. Do not rub or scrub at the dress. A gentle touch (and a DAMP cloth lol) are all that's needed here. Wipe the interior and exterior of the armpits of the dress to pick up any sweat, dead skin, deodorant residue, etc. Give the neckline a going over as well and, if the dress has sleeves, go over the cuffs, too.
This part will go really fast and make you think, "That seemed too easy …." Because, yep, it's really that easy! Don't overthink it, you're doing just fine.
Step 4: The Rinsing and The Drying!
After the too-easy-to-be-right (but-Jolie-promised-it-was-right) stain removal process, you do need to do this annoying thing: Take a clean cloth, wet it with clean water, wring it out so that it is DNW!, and go over every part of the dress you cleaned with the sudsy solution. Then, do that again. Maybe even a third time if you were heavy handed with the soap. (Yes, I see you there using more soap than you were told to use!!) It is super important to wipe away all that soap residue so it doesn't oxidize and turn the dress yellow.
After wiping away any soap residue, take a look at The Dress. If there are areas that are visibly wet, lay a clean, dry white cloth on the fabric and press down with your hands. The cloth will absorb excess water, preventing water rings from forming as The Dress dries. Then, once you've extracted as much water as possible, let her air dry on her plastic sheeting, flipping her over as needed to allow air flow.
Step 5: The Stuffing and The Wrapping!
Once she's clean and dry, it's time to stuff that bitch!!! You'll use the acid-free tissue to wrap her up, and in the case of more structured dresses, stuff her parts to maintain her shape.
Start by sliding as many sheets as needed inside the dress, to separate the back panel from the front panel. If the dress is highly structured, wad up pieces of the tissue to shape features like a sweetheart bodice, or puffed sleeves. Then, take a few pieces of tissues and roll them into a loose tube — two of them, actually — and slide them into the arms.
Sidebar: Would you like to hear my favorite joke of all time? It's so stupid, you guys, and it will make you so so mad!
Q: Where does the king keep his armies?
A: In his sleeve-ies!
(Say it out loud.)(Hahaha oh my God you're so mad right now!!)
Okay, now that we have stuffed her sleeve-ies, and her other interior parts, it is time to fold her. As you fold, insert sheets of the acid-free tissue so that there is a layer of tissue between the fabric. Because wedding dresses come in so many designs and fabrications, I can't tell you the right way to fold your particular dress, but I will tell you to go to YouTube and find some folding videos — I'll even get you started! And, here, I'll also ask you to chime in: Have you ever successfully folded something weird and would you like to share your experience with us?!?
I'm trying and failing to think of the weirdest thing I've ever folded … I'm sure something will come to me!
Step 6: The Boxing!
We did it! We brushed and cleaned and stuffed and folded The Dress!! Now it's time to thank her for her service and place her in her archival box, surrounded by extra sheets of tissues on all her sides. Store her in a cool, dry place. If you live in a high humidity area or a very damp climate, you may want to place a few silica packs in the box for moisture control. (Remember the silica packs??) If you'll be placing the box in a stack of other boxes, place her on top to prevent a potential death by crushing. (Giles Corey realness.)
I had no idea how much I missed you shouting "DAMP, NOT WET!" until I read this article. ❤️