A Wedding Dress......Scary!

I don't know if you know this but you can put an expensive, fancy, older wedding dress in a washing machine! Holy cow!

Oh my gosh can you believe it?  I think my Mom is going to have a stroke when I tell her. Mom is the garment guru of the world. I was going to consult her when I began this process but she and Dad were in the middle of moving and I didn't want to bug her so I was brave. Oh my gosh I conquered it!

From the beginning. When I was getting married way back when, the dress I really loved was very expensive. I tried it on a hundred times but put my chin up like a good little soldier and my sister-in-law to be and I set out to find another beautiful dress just as wonderful but not so expensive. We found one almost as wonderful, totally different in style but quite lovely and for a great price so I bought it on the spot. I wanted it a bit more sparkly so did some beading and sequins and it was so pretty and I was happy.

Well, my Prince Charming in the mean time had gone to the original store and bought the first dress for me......sigh. I love that man. It was so stinkin' beautiful. He didn't know about the second dress.  Neither could be taken back. That was 1984.

Now, here we are in 2013 and our daughter-in-law-to-be is going to wear the second dress I never wore! Isn't that awesome?? Well, I thought it was safe all this time in a garment bag.....

NOPE. 

It was horribly yellowed and the lace was even BROWN. I couldn't believe it when we opened it. I thought it was ruined until I started researching it on the internet. I found out that because it was not stained from food or body stains and that  the discoloration was from the acidity of garment bag I had a chance of restoring it.  This picture was taken by my daughter to show a friend. I wish I had thought to take one that really showed the discoloration. It was terrible. That dress had been snow white.

I went to multiple dry cleaners around town and all of their reactions were bad. They shook their heads and said,"No way, it's ruined". I was not discouraged.

My first attempt from all my all reading was to soak it in BIZ the non- chlorine bleach soak product. I have used this for more than 25 years for kids stains and it is awesome and works well on  delicates too. I dissolved it in the tub in room temp. water. I submerged the gown but strangely, after about 1 minute a super strong ammonia odor appeared. It was awful and I was worried. Actually I was alarmed! BIZ has no ammonia in it and I could think of no evidence chemically why this was happening. I was concerned it was damaging the fibers of the fabric so I quickly got it out. 

I read several accounts of folks actually putting gowns in the washer on the super delicate cycle as long as they were not silk. I thought, "What the heck, it's in such bad shape from the acidity, all the dry cleaners I consulted told me no way, so what harm is there in trying??"

I took a Q-Tip with very diluted bleach and on the underside of the bodice lace, dabbed it on the brown part. It instantly turned snow white!! Good sign. So I put a very small amount of bleach in the washer. I ran the load and rinsed it a few times worried the gown would come out in shreds. 

It came out BEAUTIFUL!!!

It didn't damage it at all!! Let me tell you I prayed hard. I really wanted her to be able to wear that dress and she just loves it so the prayers were heard!  She's going to change it a bit taking off the sleeves and some other small changes. We have a seamstress who is going to do a bit of this and that and make it perfect for her. I am busy this evening putting more sequins and beads on it so it is just lovely. The day is going to be wonderful.  Whew!

~Blessings~

Lisa