Drapery care at Classic Cleaners

The set of eight drapery panels was brought in to Classic Cleaners for dry cleaning, but the edges, as so often happens with prolonged exposure of drapes to sunlight, had become weakened and “sun rotted”. As you can see in the photo, Ohi was able to finish off the outside edges of each panel. (Drapes are shown here before pressing and finishing, with the frayed edges placed across the white inside portion of the panel.)

Window dressings have been around a long time, but draperies (pleated and heavier than curtains) became popular in the late 1800’s. Interestingly, in 1950 Emily Post referred to the word “drapes” as an “inexcusable vulgarism”, advising ladies to refer to window hangings as “draperies” or curtains.

However you choose to refer to them, drapes serve several important functions:

• Block or filter light
• Provide privacy
• Frame the outside view of the home

Drapes come in four basic categories:

• Traverse drapes hang from a cord-operated rod and open and close.
• Casement drapes (sheers) are translucent, hanging close to the window.
• Inverted pleat drapes are stationary panels, closely gathered at the top and hanging loose.
• Tiebacks 
         
  At Classic Cleaners, we meticulously care for draperies of every type, from swags to jabots.
  Once dry cleaning or laundering and stain removal is done, we place the drapes on special equipment that gently dries them while pleats are refreshed as needed.

Unlike Scarlett O’Hara, you’ve probably no plans to use your drapes as dresses.  Nonetheless, they are dressings – for your windows. As part of a well-dressed home, drapes should be cleaned at least once every two years. 

At Classic Cleaners, we want to help your home make the Best Dressed list!

 By Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Buttons, however, represent only one of the many varieties of garment fasteners we find on the thousands upon thousands of customer garments we care for at our dry cleaning plant in Indianapolis.

Hooks, snaps, Velcro, sippers, buckles – you name it, and you know our technicians are pledged to keep those fasteners functioning (protecting our loyal customers from the type of “wardrobe malfunctions” that inspired recent media coverage).

Garment fasteners have a history all their own, no doubt about it:

• Cavemen fashioned straight pins out of thorns to hold together animal hides.
• Greeks and Romans used safety pin-like clasps.
• Snaps appeared in the late 1800’s.
• B.F. Goodrich coined the phrase “zipper”, using a “separable fastener” invented in 1913 for their rubber galoshes.
• Velcro was developed in the 1950’s.

Special tidbits from Wikipedia: The brand name “Velcro” comes from two French words: “velours” and “crochet”. There are two layers: a “hook” side, and a “loop” side.  When the two sides are pressed together, the hooks catch in the loops.  When the layers are separated, the strips make a characteristic” ripping” sound.  (Now, as a Classic cleaners blog reader, you are “in the loop”!)

Whatever form of garment fastener we encounter, at Classic Cleaners, our mission remains the same: ensuring that every Classic Cleaners customer is “well put together”!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Used as fasteners on clothing, buttons can pose special challenges as we dry clean and launder your clothes.  If one of your garments has delicate buttons (studs, beaded buttons, rhinestones, and the like), our Classic Cleaners seamstress Ohi Suhri may actually remove the buttons and then reattach them once dry cleaning is complete.

And, of course, there’s the special Classic Cleaners’ button guarantee. In case there are any broken or missing buttons on your laundered shirts, we sew on new ones prior to returning the finished garments.

When it comes to buttons in the computer age, Classic Cleaners is very “well-clicked”, as our many blog readers can attest. A “button”, of course, is a shape on your computer screen which you click with your mouse, usually to go to another page on the website.

Remember the children’s game “Button, Button”? Kids would sit in a circle, passing a hidden button to each other while the child who was “It” chanted “Button, button, who’s got the button?”

Well, now that you’re grown up, you no longer need to guess where the buttons are.  Whether on our website or on your clothes, Classic Cleaners makes sure you have all the right buttons handy!

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Discover special August dry cleaning promotion

At Classic Cleaners, we have specials for every month of the year.  Of course our Classic Rewards program is available year round.  This August, though, thanks to Discover Card, it’s a sort of triple promotion month for all our Classic Cleaners customers.

Discover announced that through August 31, for every transaction at a dry cleaners using a Discover Card, customers will get five entries in a $1 million 2010 grand prize drawing. The Discover promotion includes dry cleaning, laundry, uniform cleaning, tailoring, and alternations.

August is already a special time at Classic Cleaners, a time when your dry cleaning helps others succeed.  For every August dry cleaning order of $20 or more, we donate $2 for Dress For Success Indianapolis.

In addition to the August monthly special, Classic Cleaners offers $10 off for every $200 you spend within a six-month period.

Do the math:

Monthly special + Classic Rewards + Discover promotion = a very memorable August 2010!

We wish each and every one of our customers could be a $1,000,000 winner.  In any event, we’re sure that, in your freshly cleaned and pressed garments, you’ll have that million dollar look!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

At Classic Cleaners, we know.  As the very first dry cleaners in the Indianapolis area to earn the designation Certified Environmental Drycleaner from the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute, we are proud to put a checkmark next to each one of the items on Darrell New’s how-to-tell-if-your-dry-cleaner-is-green list:

Responsible waste disposal:
None of the chemicals used at Classic Cleaners ever go into city sewers or underground tanks.  Used-up cleaning agents are saved in above-ground tanks to be removed by licensed chemical companies, who either recycle the chemicals or dispose of them through state-approved processes.
 

 Recycling:
 As New points out, many cleaners accept used wire hangers and plastic bags, but the question is – what happens from there. At Classic Cleaners, we gather hangers (not just ours, but any hangers customers collect). We reuse some, and have the rest professionally recycled.   

We encourage our customers to return plastic bags to us by putting them into the cleaning bag with the next order.  Classic Cleaners has contracted with a green recycling firm to turn that plastic into trash bags and other reusable items.     

Proper machine maintenance:
At our Classic Cleaners processing plants, the machinery is constantly being updated and replaced with energy-efficient, cost and labor-saving models.  Keeping the building itself in tip-top shape in terms of insulation and repairs helps further reduce energy costs. 

Carbon footprint reduction:
The biggest “carbon footprint” reduction of all, though, comes from reducing our customers’ need to drive their cars to drop off and pick up their laundry and dry cleaning!  Our free and convenient pick-up and delivery route service adds convenience while reducing carbon emission from automobile travels.

In this case a plus and a minus equals – green!  Not just green, but true green.  At Classic Cleaners, we don’t mean to boast, but we can’t help crowing about our Indiana 5-Star Environmental Recognition award!

By Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Classic Cleaners' Antique ironing board at 146th & Gray Road

Taking a break, I wandered into the Classic Cleaners store to say hello to manager Misty Elliott, and to get a longer look at the little piece of history displayed inside that Bridgewater Classic Cleaners location – an antique wooden ironing board.

Interestingly, ironing boards are a fairly new invention.  The Vikings used heated rocks as “irons”, laying the clothes out on a large, flat piece of whalebone.  But, what we think of as an ironing board was patented in 1858 by W. Vandenburg right here in the United States. The first ironing board similar to the ironing boards common in homes today was patented by Sarah Boone in 1892.

When buying an ironing board for your home, About.com advises that, if you have enough room to store it, the best kind to own is one at least 4 feet long and 12-18 inches wide.

At Classic Cleaners, of course, only the most modern ironing technology is used. The Unipress shirt machine wet-presses each shirt’s torso, sleeves, and collar simultaneously. Ironing touchups by hand follow the automated operation. Even when it comes to table linens, our large professional press allows drying and pressing to happen in a single stage. In fact, most dry cleaners simply cannot provide this kind of finish for table linens.

Ironing is more of an art than a process, though.  Even with the most advanced technology, to get good ironing, you need good people, really skillful ironing technicians who know how to press without leaving the outline of pockets on pants, who know how to finish shirt collars to perfection.  

That’s why many of our Classic Cleaners’ customers have found it most efficient to get on about their busy lives, leaving the ironing to us!

By Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Yellowing is a big dry cleaning challenge, no doubt about it.  And I don’t mean just a yellow spot, but when an entire section of a garment or even the entire thing, has turned from white to a sickly shade of yellow.

To be sure, Classic Cleaners’ professionals have been able to chalk up some major successes in the battle against yellowing.  Blog readers may recall Regina Mattson’s wedding blanket, the pair of lace wedding shoes, and Brooke Hynds Mackin’s 62-year old, third generation wedding gown.

According to fibre2fashion.com, “yellowing of textile fabrics is one of the oldest and most widespread quality problems known.”…”As a general statement, yellowing…is an indication of unintended chemical degradation.” Fibre2fashion lists several factors that can cause fabrics to yellow:

• Exposure to excessive heat and light (sunlight or fluorescent light)
•  Chemical additives in softeners or brightening agents
• Contaminants from boxes or bags (we wrote about the importance of acid-free containers just the other day)
• Perfumes and body lotions
• High humidity

Some of the time, in fact most times, our experienced technicians have won the battle against yellowing on garments and linens. There have been times, though, when garment are just too far gone for us to restore. (Almost always, though, when you bring in a garment for a consultation, we can predict how well it’s likely to turn out.) 

From a treasured garment’s point of view, it’s just not easy being yellow!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

At Classic Cleaners, we see snags of every sort.  Sometimes, a wood splinter or a broken fingernail is the culprit, but more typically, garment snags are the result of metal things that go “pinch” or “pull”.

When the prongs on jewelry are loose, not only can precious stones be lost, those loose prongs can be very bad news for clothes.  Quick! Take your ring to your jeweler, while your dry cleaning professionals make the needed repairs to your garment.

Ladies, even your not-so-precious costume jewelry, especially if it hangs below the neckline, can snag your clothing.  Earrings that dangle can cause amazing damage as clothing is pulled over the head. Gentlemen’s and ladies’ belts can include metal edging or clasps that go “pinch” and “snag”.

The jury is still out on cell phone use being bad for human health. For sure, though, cell phones can be bad for clothing: the clips on belt cell phone holders often cause snags in the waistbands of skirts and trousers. Pin-on – and clip-on – name badges at business meetings? Those can snag woven fabrics of tops and sweaters.

Metal hoops in Civil War-era dresses

Repairing fabric tears is just one of the services Classic Cleaners provides, along with patching jacket elbows, replacing buttons, fasteners, and zippers, and hemming dresses, skirts, and pants.  With our decades of combined experience, you can bet those fasteners and zippers no longer go “pinch” in the night – or in the day, for that matter! 

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Thread Count Counts at Classic Cleaners!

If you learn nothing else about suits, askmen.com wants to be sure you learn about thread count.

  The higher the thread count, the finer the weave and delicacy of the wool fabric – a count higher than 300 signifies a fine fabric. Closer to 180, though, may mean your suit is “tougher” and that the fabric might hold up longer.

Askmen.com was talking about all-wool suits, but quite often, the business suits turned in for dry cleaning at our Indianapolis, Westfield, and Carmel Classic Cleaners locations are made of a blended fabric. Sometimes suits contain a blend of natural and man-made fibers. The care label will offer a recommendation for method of cleaning that is based partially on the fabric blend.

It’s interesting.  We generally mistrust the statement “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you”, but, as an Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet on textile sciences explains, most consumers consider care labels a desirable form of government regulation. At Classic Cleaners, our professionals begin by deciphering the label on each garment, and then proceed to study each stain. 

With decades of combined experience, the Classic Cleaners team has assembled an arsenal of tools and techniques. Thread count matters, because the finer the weave, the more delicately the suit fabric must be treated.

Thread count matters on bed linens and tablecloths as well. But, as one eBay Guide explains, there are other factors to be considered as well, such as the quality of the yarn itself, the construction, and the finishing.

Whatever the thread count of your suits or linens, you may be sure no thread will be left unraveled as Classic Cleaners treats your fabrics to professional care!

Interesting.  Although Classic Cleaners has earned a reputation for expert stain removal, it’s often true today that garments with no stains still need dry cleaning in order to remove smells.

Back in Civil War times, clothes were left out in the open air to get deodorized.  Today, Classic Cleaners’ technicians use an ozone-making machine the size of a small space heater. Clothes are exposed to the ozone within a closed-off room.  Just a few minutes with the ozone machine equals the effect of a couple of weeks leaving clothes to air outside!

Classic Cleaners Partner Steve Arnold at 4th Virginia Company

Clothing in Civil War times was made to last for many years.  Battlefield soldiers often didn’t have the luxury of owning several changes of clothes (average monthly pay was $11!).  Still, the hand-brushing soldiers used to restore the “nap” to fabrics is still used as one of several garment hand-care techniques at Classic Cleaners today.

You may not be in the habit of cooking wild turkey over a campfire, but clothing absorbs odors from many sources, and clothing needs periodic professional deodorizing.

When Classic Cleaners returns your garments to you at the counter or at your home, you may be assured those garments are not only clean and pressed – they can pass the smell test!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team