Even though the framed needlepoint brought into her Carmel dry cleaning store proved too delicate for even the professionals at Classic Cleaners to risk hand cleaning it, manager April Tillberry keeps a photo of the piece on her cell phone. The needlepoint’s message might have been written just for her:

                           “Put  your big girl panties on and deal with it!”

"Big Girl Panties" Needlepoint

Just seven short years ago, the 26-year old, 267-pound young woman found herself in dire straits, with no means to support herself and her two children.  Lacking transportation and job training, April saw a bleak future ahead. Determined to find a way to “deal with it”, April resolved to make something of herself despite all the obstacles.  Putting on her “big girl panties”, she began working at a fast food restaurant.

As fate would have it, April’s mom, Lorraine Rork, manager at Classic Cleaners’  Bash Street store, needed a counter person. The amazing turnaround tale had begun…

In her first years with Classic Cleaners, April pared down to 135 pounds while making good on her promise to herself and her daughters to become self-sufficient. Tillberry became Classic Cleaners’ primary trainer, and manager of the Hazel Dell Carmel Classic Cleaners store. “I love my store,” she declares proudly. “This is where I needed to be. Classic allowed me to have a whole new life.”

Wednesdays are a special joy and a special challenge for April, because Wednesday is the “special” day at the Hazel Dell and 131st Street store, with skirts and slacks cleaned for $5.99 (instead of $7.19) and business shirts laundered for $2.20 (instead of the usual $2.69).    In between processing clothing brought in for cleaning and laundry, manning the desk, and organizing the store, April greets customers with a smile, calling each by name, finding out the story behind each stain.

April Tillberry, now a trim 33-year old, has taken on a big Classic Cleaners job and is certainly dealing with it in style.  Three current Classic Cleaners managers, Nancy Leonard, Jackie Wilson, and Blanca Martinez were all April’s trainees, and “April’s” Hazel Dell store is one of Classic Cleaners’  busiest and well-run locations.

Seven years and some 200 special Wednesdays later, April Tillberry has improved her life and career in a big way at Classic Cleaners.  (The only thing smaller are the “panties”!)

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Blame the manufacturer….

The WXNT announcer is careful to explain that the opinions of Indianapolis radio talk show host Abdul Hakkim Shabazz are his own, not necessarily those of the station or its owners.  So, concludes the disclaimer, “Don’t call us….call HIM!”

Kimberly Fusaro, writing in WomansDay.com, remarks that dry cleaners across the country would often like to tell their customers “Don’t call us…call the manufacturer!”  That’s because many of the problems that arise during the dry cleaning process were the fault of the clothing manufacturer, not the fault of the dry cleaner.

Here are just a few examples that we see with garments brought into Classic Cleaners stores:

• Puckering of collars and cuffs, or linings that hang below the hem of the garment. These problems are caused when the interfacing shrinks, because the manufacturer didn’t select an interfacing compatible with the garment fabric.
• Shirt buttons that crack during pressing. Often this happens because a manufacturer used lesser-quality buttons. (At Classic Cleaners, we replace chipped or cracked buttons.
• Colors that bleed into each other.  The FTC Label Rule dictates that all components of a garment must be able to withstand the recommended care procedure. 

According to Federal Trade Commission rules, if a garment’s label says “dry clean”, ALL parts of the garment must not become altered during cleaning.  That includes:

 - the outer shell
 - the lining
 - the interfacing
 - the fusing material
 - the trim

If a problem occurs, responsibility lies with the manufacturer, who did not properly test the garment before labeling.

At Classic Cleaners, we’ll never tell you “Don’t call us.”  But WomansDay.com is right: Every so often we find ourselves wanting to point to the manufacturer’s name on the label, saying to our customer, “Call HIM!”

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

WomansDay.com lists Ten Things Your Dry Cleaner Won’t Tell You.  But, when it comes to do-it-yourself dry cleaning at home, there are almost as many things we at Classic Cleaners feel obligated to share with our customers and blog readers.

There are several products available on the market today that promise to clean clothes at home. including Custom Cleaner (Dial), FreshCare (Clorox), and Dryel (Proctor & Gamble). However, cleaning your clothes in your home dryer is not as good an idea as it first sounds.  Here’s why:

1.  You’re only spot-cleaning. Garments are never totally immersed in solvent.  (That may sound like an advantage, but it’s not.)  Professional dry cleaners immerse clothing in solvent, with computer-calculated mixes of detergent, brighteners, and sizing, all of which restore freshness and cleanliness to the clothes.)

2.  Home dry cleaning never rinses out the spotting solution.

3.  With home cleaning, there’s no way to regulate how much extraction of solution there should be for each fabric.

4.  Home spotting solutions can be effective on many water-soluble stains, but those solutions are not effective for solvent-soluble stains or on combination stains.

5.  Home cleaning doesn’t include professional finishing, such as pressing creases in trousers or steaming ruffles.

6.  Home dryers are rarely temperature-controlled for each type of fabric.

7.  Some stains are invisible.  That means stains that were not treated are going into the heat of the dryer, which can further set the stains!

Now that Classic Cleaners has told you all this information, ask yourself: Are there things you’re not telling your dry cleaner?  A large part of dry cleaning success, says WomansDay.com, depends on customers being honest about stains.

The professionals at Classic Cleaners are proven experts at removing stains.  Honest!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog tream