Cleaning > LaundryMay 26, 2010

Cleaning a Wedding Dress at Home

How can I clean my wedding dress at home?

By Diana from Lincoln

Answers

Read answers for this post below.

By
05/30/2010

My mother has owned a drycleaners for 10 years. Only once did she ever dry clean a wedding gown. 99.99% of dresses are completely washing machine cleaned. Dry cleaning with completely destroy the gown. So be leery if you do take it somewhere and they tell you and charge you near $200.00 for them to "dryclean" your dress, when as soon as you left they tossed it in a double front loader, set it to wash and hung it to dry.

(My mother told every bride how she was going to clean her dress up front, what most brides are looking for is that their gown is prepared correctly for storage. (the boxes are oversized with a window to see the bodice of the gown without pulling it out, and acid free tissue is used to inhibit yellowing". The boxes themselves are near $75.00. You can use dawn dish soap and a soft nail brush, gently scrub the soiled areas, wash on delicate and hang to dry. if the dress is really big, most laundromats have double/triple load washing machines.

My dress was so big it didn't fit in any washer. My mother and I washed it in our swimming pool. Yup, that's right. There was scarcely any chlorine in the pool at the time, so we dunked and rinsed it right in the shallow end of the swimming pool, then hung it from my mothers deck awning. Wedding dresses are much more durable then you would think.
All of the above are tried and true a countless times over. Hope this helps.

By
05/28/2010

I agree with MCW. It's too important to take chances.

The only other thing I can think of is using Dryel, that home dry cleaning kit. I use it all the time and about the third time around have my clothes professionally dry cleaned.

But again, don't risk it. I know it's expensive, but if you ruin it at home, you might have to buy a brand new wedding gown and that'll be really expensive.

Good luck!

By
05/26/2010

You'll ruin it if you try and clean it yourself. Please take it to a professional dry cleaner.

Questions

Here are questions related to this page. Click "Ask a Question" if you have a question to ask about this topic.

Cleaning an Older Wedding Dress at Home

How would I go about cleaning an old wedding dress (30+ years) at home? Could I use the Dryel and do all the metal and buttons need to come off?

By Pam C. from Appleton, WI

 

Most Recent Answer

By lindal 01/05/2012

Please don't try to do this at home. Likely this dress is sentimentally valuable to you-invest in having it professionally cleaned. Go to a cleaner that specializes in cleaning antiques and can then package it in a box and tissue that is archival quality.

Related

Archives

Here are archived discussions related to this page.

I recently bought an Alfred Angelo wedding dress at a thrift store. It is very pretty, with sequins and such on the top.


I found my dream wedding dress 2nd hand. Its gorgeous and exactly what I wanted. However it needs to be cleaned.


My sister gave me her hand me down wedding dress. But it has mold and water damage to the dress? Someone please help me with advice on how to clean it.


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