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!

While Classic Cleaners’ General Manager Steve Arnold and the other 24 members of the 4th Virginia Company were cooking wild turkey at Conner Prairie Village’s civil war re-enactment last month, Arnold realized, their vintage uniforms were absorbing the smell of the campfire.

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

Taking care of your flag

There’s nothing we like better at Classic Cleaners than a clean, bright, red-white-and-blue American flag flying proudly in the wind.

 In fact, one of the special things we do to earn our “Best Dry Cleaners in Indy” rating is to clean any American or state flag (3’x5’ or smaller) free of charge.  (That’s not one of the famous Classic Cleaners monthly specials – we do flag-cleaning all year ‘round!)

 This month is the perfect time to have your flags cleaned, though. After all, we’re smack dab in the middle of flag season, what with Memorial Day a couple of weeks ago, then Flag Day this week, and Fourth of July coming up. Sure enough, at Classic Cleaners we see a lot of flags being turned in every June.

 There are actually dozens of “flag days”, including:

•  Inauguration Day (January 20)
• Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12)
• Army Day (April 6)
• Labor Day (first Monday in September)
• Constitution Day (September 17)
• Navy Day (October 27)
• Veterans Day (November 11)

 But, as capital flags.com reminds us, as a U.S. citizen, you may display your flag any day you like!

 Our Classic Cleaners’ professionals can help guard the colors of your flag and remove dirt and stains, but guarding against tears is often something the owner needs to do. It’s important not to fly your flag where it will come in contact with tree branches, wire cables, or even nails and hooks protruding from a building’s walls.

 Capitalflags.com advises protecting your flag from exposure to storms and abnormally high winds, because any of these things can shorten a flag’s life.  While many flags today are made of weather-proof material, high winds can tatter any flag.  At Classic Cleaners we want to add that, if your flag gets wet, spread it out to dry before bringing it to be professionally cleaned.  Putting the flag into a bag while wet can cause some of the colors to “bleed”.

 At Classic Cleaners, we want to help you keep those American – and those Indiana State – flags flying high and proud!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

The debate rages on.

Lockers - Classic Cleaners', not Davey Jones'!

Linguists and historians can’t seem to agree on the origins of the expression “Davey Jones’ Locker”

(referring to the bottom of the sea where drowned sailors go).

Meanwhile, there’s no debating the fact that Indy’s best dry cleaners has installed drop-off   (These lockers are very dry and definitely above ground!)

lockers in a dozen of its retail locations.

The first mention of Davey Jones was in a book, published in 1751, called The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle. “This same Davy Jones, according to sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep,” wrote author Tobias Smollett.

A second theory is that “Davey” equals “Duffy”, the West Indiana term for ghost, and that “Jones” stands for “Jonah”, whom God punished by causing him to be swallowed by a whale.

There’s more.  A 1594 song called “Jones’ Ale is Newe” told of a pub owner who threw drunken sailors into his ale locker and then dumped the lockers onto passing ships.

I can assure you – at Classic Cleaners, lockers are used for convenience, not punishment.  Our lockers are for holding clothes, not ale or sailors!)

Working late? Just returned from vacation? It’s so convenient to drop off your personalized express dry cleaning bag in the secure chute.  We do the rest.  Then, once your clothes are ready for pickup, we store them in a locker accessible by your personalized PIN.

Next time you visit us at Classic Cleaners, tell the manager you’re ready to sign up for your very own locker services.

You can hear the Davey Jones name right in the U.S. Navy song, Anchors Aweigh. “Sail on to victory, and sink their bones to Davey Jones, hooray!”, the words go.

At Classic Cleaners, we won’t be sinking anybody’s bones. Every so often, though, after seeing how beautifully a problem garment turned out under Classic Cleaners specialists’ expert care, customers do let out a “Hooray” or two!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Commenting about mistakes, well-known author and sales trainer Zig Ziglar had this advice: “Some of us learn from other people’s mistakes.  The rest of us have to BE other people!”Of course we know everyone makes mistakes. But since the professionals at Classic Cleaners work hard to remain the best dry cleaners in Indy, we don’t want our customers to be making garment care mistakes other people learn from!

Deteriorated wedding gown

Knowing that wedding gown restoration is a specialty at Classic Cleaners, a customer brought us a dress in hopes it could be restored.  Unfortunately, too much time had passed; too much damage had been done. As you can see from the photo, the sleeves of the dress had already deteriorated and were starting to come apart.  Mildew had rotted the front area of the garment. We needed to break the bad news to the owner that, while it was possible that the original color of her dress might be restored, the fabric would not hold up under  total stain removal treatment.

What “O.P.M.” lessons can be learned from her story?
 
Never put away a garment with stains (even if you suspect something might have been spilled on it).

Exposure to any of these can set the stains in and cause deterioration of the fabric:

• The warmth of a closet or car trunk (especially when the garment is in a plastic bag!)
• Light
• The atmosphere
• Insects
• Heat
• The wrong combination of chemicals
• Rubbing

Always tell your dry cleaning professional if there has been a spill, even if there’s no sign of a stain. The longer you wait, the less likely you are to recall the important information your dry cleaner needs to treat your garment.

While the wedding gown could not be fully restored for wear, the technicians at Classic Cleaners were able to gently clean the gown and preserve it in one of our archival wedding gown boxes.

(See, Zig?  We’re offering our Classic Cleaners customers every O.P.M. opportunity to learn about garment care  the easy way!)

Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

In the famous Edgar Allen Poe short story, The Telltale Heart, the murderer was convinced he’d covered his tracks.  “There was nothing to wash out – no stain of any kind,” he’d told himself.

Have you ever spilled something and had the stain disappear, leaving no sign of champagne, soda, or food? 

Telltale Stains Too Late To Fix

Weeks or even months or years later, a yellow or brown stain magically appears at the very spot of the original spill. How did that happen?

At Classic Cleaners, we see many such unwelcome “encore appearances” of stains.  Clear alcoholic beverages often don’t appear to have done any damage at the time they’re spilled on a dress, jacket, or trousers.  But, stealthy as ”telltale hearts”, back come the telltale signs of  past spills of tea, coffee, soda, or champagne, white wine, or fruit juice.

Speaking of fruit, you’ve seen a peeled apple turn brown. No real mystery,  just science – the brownish color is a result of the sugar in the fruit oxidizing or “carmelizing” when it’s exposed to air.

The problem with carmelizing on clothes, though, is that time and heat help set in those reappeared stains, and the more time that passes, and the more heat there is, the harder it becomes to ever get those stains out of the fabric.

Spills happen on the happiest of occasions.  But for there to be a happy ending to your Telltale Stain story, remember these three rules:

• Blot – don’t rub! – the stain when the spill happens.
• Even if you see no signs of the spill on your garment, as soon as possible, bring it in for dry cleaning!
• Tell all!  Make sure your dry cleaning professionals know exactly what happened.  That way, the stain can be pre-treated before the garment is exposed to any heat in the dry cleaning process.

The murderer thought he’d gotten away with the crime, but the Telltale Heart “reappeared”, revealing the terrible truth.

That’s why Classic Cleaners’ word to the wise is:

If YOU don’t tell the truth about your stains, your stains will tell the story for you.  And, by then, it might be too late to restore your special garment!

Classic Cleaners' Unipress machine

CLASSIC CLEANERS SPRING SHIRT SPECIAL

50% OFF  ALL MEN’S OR WOMEN’S SHIRTS 

BROUGHT  IN TO BE LAUNDERED AND MACHINE-PRESSED 

JUNE 1 THROUGH JUNE 7

 Styles and trends in men’s dress shirts have changed over the years, fashion expert Andrew Stratton points out. “A crisp, stark-white shirt will probably not impress a potential employer as much as it might make you look like a waiter,” he adds.  “Choose palettes that compliment your complexion and eye coloring”  is Stratton’s advice.

At Classic Cleaners we launder shirts of every possible shade, style, and fabric.  And, while in general, men’s clothing tends to be much more casual and relaxed than in times past, there’s nothing like a crisply pressed dress shirt to spruce up a gentleman’s appearance.

Do you wear your shirts the classic way, tucked in and buttoned up with a tie?  Perhaps you prefer a  “dapper gentleman” look, with the shirt tucked inside a sweater.  The “modern way” might consist of an un-tucked long-sleeved shirt worn open-collared under a sport coat.

Can you believe thirty five years have passed since John T. Molloy published the book Dress For Success?  We leave it to our Classic Cleaners customers to decide whether Molloy’s advice is outdated when it comes to men’s business attire.  “You will never, ever, as long as you live,” Molloy practically shouted from Page 86 of his book, “wear a short-sleeve shirt for any business purpose…”

You’ll see many different styles, and hear many different opinions about the most appropriate ways for men to wear dress shirts.  Whatever your preference, our skilled technicians devote special care to helping you look your very best.

Our newest Unipress shirt machine (operated here by Classic Cleaners technician Johana Duque) wet-presses the shirt’s sleeves, torso and collar simultaneously, with inspection and touch-ups by hand to follow.  The result: With every button in place, the perfectly pressed, starched-to-order shirt is ready to help seal a business deal, clinch a job interview, or attract compliments at the most elegant party!

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

We like for Classic Cleaners employees to blow off steam!

Most dry cleaners use steam guns as part of their equipment.  A steam gun helps remove water-soluble stains.  The steam can also remove chemicals that have been used to spot-clean a garment.

The same gun can work the other way, using a different foot pedal.  In that case, the gun blows compressed air to dry out the moisture left by the steam.

“Blowing steam” is just one of several special techniques used to hand-treat garments, along with wire brushes and other special hand tools.  Here specialist  Theresa Golish poses along with production manager Rose Benavidez at the hand-detailing station at our Classic Cleaners Bash Road plant.

Steam gun for hand-treating clothing at Classic Cleaners

You know how, on TV, when they show a dangerous stunt, the announcer warns “Don’t try this at home!”?  Don’t try to steam clean your own garments using an iron.  Irons can easily damage delicate fabrics. In fact, if you iron over a deodorant streak, you may permanently damage the fabric of your garment, Andrew Rivkin of Embassy Cleaners in New York told WomansDay.com.

Feeling as if you need to blow off steam?  Try running around the block . Leave the job of steam-cleaning  garments to the professionals at Classic Cleaners!

Color guards are the folks who raise, lower, and safeguard the American flag in flag-raising ceremonies, but Classic Cleaners can help guard the colors of your flag!

In fact, at Classic Cleaners, the cleaning of any flag 3’X5’ or smaller is done free of charge.  With Memorial Day approaching, now’s the perfect time to freshen up that old Red, White, and Blue.

Did you know…The red of the stripes signifies valor. The white signifies purity and innocence. The blue field behind the stars stands for justice. (Red, of course, is one of the more difficult fabric colors to maintain, making it all the more challenging to keep a U.S. flag in good condition.)

The first official U.S. flag was established June 14, 1777, with thirteen stars for the original 13 colonies.  Today’s flag consists of 50 stars representing the 50 states which comprise the United States.

According to Last Frontier Boy Scout Council, “A worn or faded flag should be retired with respect.  Fold the flag and place it on a fire.  The ashes should then be buried.”

On Memorial Day, the proper way to display the flag is to fly it at half mast in the morning. Then, then, at noon, the flag should be raised to full staff position.  At sunset, the flag should be stored for the night.

This May, let the professionals at Classic Cleaners be your “Color Guards”!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

One of our newest customers called with a question: Could we get A LOT of bubble gum out of her son’s baseball uniform?

Classic Cleaners District Manager Dee Godwin to the rescue!  The result: one very clean baseball uniform, one very happy customer, one very happy young baseball player.

Baseball jersey with bubble gum

Baseball jersey ready for the game - no more bubble gum!

Funny thing, while chewing gum goes all the way back to ancient Greece (Greeks chewed resin from the mastic tree) and Mayans (who chewed the sap of the sapodilla tree), bubble gum itself was discovered by accident in 1928.  Walter Diemer was experimenting with different gum recipes when his mixture began to form bubbles.  Diemer brought some of the gum to a grocery store to test the market, teaching the salespeople how to blow bubbles so that they could, in turn, teach the trick to customers.  All the gum sold in one day, and the rest, as they say, is bubble gum  history!

Each brand of bubble gum has its own unique formula.  But blowing bubbles, as Michael Russell explains in The History of Bubble Gum, has become a tradition with friends and families.

Bubble gum, though, can turn into a problem when it connects with hair or clothing. Ehow.com recommends applying ice directly onto the gum for about 15 minutes, or until the gum is frozen solid.  Sometimes, but not always, that allows the gum to be scraped off clothing or skin. 

             1st Rule of Gum: Watch where you sit . (Don’t you often wish others would watch where they spit?) 

             2nd Rule of Gum:  Scrap the scraping, which can leave marks and even tear fabrics.

For a “home run” in removing unwelcome substances and stains from your clothes, leave the job to the professionals at Classic Cleaners!

Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team