Back in the day, our great-great-grandparents knew Milk of Magnesia was a good remedy to “buffer” stomach acid.

  But, along with preventing acid indigestion in our own bodies, did you know that books and clothes need to be protected as well?

When Classic Cleaners professionals are preserving an heirloom or a wedding gown, for instance, they use layers of acid-free paper to stuff the garment, and then pack the item it into a box made of acid-free material.

"Buffering" clothes with acid-free paper

(The definition of acid-free paper is paper with a neutral PH of around 7.) 

Up until the middle 1800’s, paper was made from various plants, including mulberry and flax.  Then it was discovered that paper could be made more cheaply from wood pulp. It took chemicals to break the wood down into pulp, however, and that process left a residue of acid. The problem was that the acid would turn the pulp yellow and cause it to deteriorate over time.  In fact, many valuable books in libraries became illegible over time, all due to the effects of acid in the paper on which they had been printed!

Today, much of the commercially produced paper is acid free because, during the processing of the wood, “buffers” are added to neutralize the acid in the pulp (kind of like putting “Tums” or Milk of Magnesia in the mix).

Layered with acid free material and loaded into the acid free archival quality preservation box, your gown or heirloom can “breathe”.  Good thing, too, because at Classic Cleaners, we work hard to preserve our reputation as the best wedding gown preservation service from Indianapolis to Noblesville and everywhere in between.

Acid indigestion for clothes?  No way!  After all, as a Classic Cleaners customer, you’ve got a “buffer” in the dry cleaning business!

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!

Our own Leon Neal, master wedding dress cleaner, sent me a link to a very interesting article on www.preownedweddingdresses.com: Can that dress be cleaned?

The article quotes Sally Lorensen Conant, Ph.D., who  “is the executive director of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists – a network of cleaners represented in more than 500 cities that specialize and excel in wedding dress cleaning and preservation.” Classic Cleaners is a member of this association, so it’s no coincidence that we agree with the content in this blog post!

Here are some choice quotes from the post:

As a general rule, there is very little risk to buying a stained and discolored dress made of a non-silk fiber. Almost any stain or discoloration can be removed from these.

But note that a really dingy/ shopworn non-silk gown needs to be cleaned professionally rather than “spotted out.” That’s because you may dissolve the dinge when you dissolve the stain. And spot removal will remove specific stains but leave white spots.

The truth is a good professional cleaner can remove almost any stain, but there are some things no cleaner can do:
1) repair broken fibers
2) remove yellowing from overexposure to sun or fluorescent light

Yellowing/discoloration is not usually just a spot. On a silk gown, yellow areas may mean there has been a chemical change that cannot be reversed. Even if it can, the yellow may be very difficult to remove, especially if there is also metallic embroidery in that area because chemicals that remove the yellow can turn the metallic embroidery black.

In general, very badly discolored gowns may not be a good buy. If the gown is polyester, it may be expensive to clean it properly, and if it is silk, it may not be possible to remove the discoloration.

Although the content is accurate here, I have one caveat: a lot of yellowing, perhaps even the majority of yellowing, can be gotten out of a gown. I have seen Classic Cleaners take dresses that were horrendously yellow and make them look brand new! Click on our Classic Cleaners wedding gown services category to see some examples.

It’s true that there are some stains and yellowing we can’t handle, but if you show us a gown we can almost always tell you how well it’s likely to turn out. Feel free to bring in any wedding gown–or any heirloom garment–for a free consultation!

–Matt

Recently on this blog, we’ve told two wedding gown restoration success stories:

Classic Cleaners of Indianapolis restores improperly cleaned wedding gown to glorious beauty!

Classic Cleaners restores 1947 wedding gown–beautiful bride wears it with pride!

We use the same processes in Classic Cleaners’ safe, gentle, and highly effective wedding gown restoration service and Classic Cleaners’ safe, gentle, and highly effective cleaning and MuseumCare preservation service for wedding gowns.

The main difference between the two services is this: We restore wedding gowns that have become discolored or otherwise damaged over time, and we clean and preserve recently worn wedding gowns so that they do not become damaged over time. Of course, once the gown is restored and worn again in a ceremony, it needs to be preserved thereafter to keep it beautiful for the next bride in your family.

One of the tools we use to preserve your precious gown is our archival-quality wedding gown preservation box. In this post I’m including two pictures of the box. The first is a professional photograph of the box, which, as you can see, has an inner box with a see-through window and an outer box.

The other photo is not professional (I took it!), but I’m posting it here to show you that we put our preservation boxes on display in many of our stores. In the display models, the outer box has been cut away to show the inner box, but, of course, that’s just for display.

Classic Cleaners’ archival-quality wedding gown preservation boxes have many special features to keep your gown clean and odor-free while preserving its original beautiful color as time goes by. As we say on our wedding gown preservation page (linked to above),

We layer your gown with acid-free tissue and carefully fold it into an acid-free, archival-quality preservation box. We store metal buttons and findings and shoulder pads separately, stuffing the sleeves, bodice, and folds with additional acid-free tissue to prevent hard wrinkles. The preservation box, designed especially for this purpose, allows the gown to breathe, keeping it in perfect condition for many decades to come.

The box itself is made of acid-free materials and lets your gown breathe.

We’ve earned a reputation of having the best wedding gown preservation service in Indianapolis because we take such exquisite care with your gown. For a gratis consultation on your gown, please visit your favorite Classic Cleaners location or contact us at the number below!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

•For immediate help with cleaning, please call (317) 845-5244 or email us
•Share your Classic Cleaners stories and photos on this blog
•RSS this blog

Customers trust Classic Cleaners to clean and preserve their wedding gowns with the highest level of care–and achieve the highest level of success!

Once our customers see the incredible results we offer, they are sure to come back to us when the need arises. Sometimes the same gown is worn by several brides, as in this beautiful story, and sometimes the customer trust us with more than one dress over time, as in the following example of our work.

This dress was the fourth dress entrusted to us by the mother of four daughters. The photo at the right shows the dress after cleaning but before preservation and packing in an archival-quality box.

The composite photo shows areas of the dress after cleaning (top) and before cleaning (bottom). As you can see, this dress needed a thorough (but gentle) cleaning to return to its original beauty. The gown had yellowed quite a bit since it was last worn (click on the photo for a larger image).

This beautiful gown features delicate lace and thousands of fine beads. Our gentle process protects lace and beads–yet attains these marvelous results. To learn more about Classic Cleaners’ gentle but effective wedding gown cleaning and preservation process, please click here.

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Classic Cleaners partner and wedding gown cleaning and preservation specialist Leon Neal has a very good sense of humor. As a fun way to advertise that Classic Cleaners offers the best wedding gown cleaning service in Indianapolis, he used a discarded wedding gown as a table cloth at his church’s Christmas table decorating party.

First, Leon gave the dress a thorough cleaning, using Classic Cleaners’ special detergents and gentle washing method. Then the women of the church created this whimsical centerpiece-plus-table cloth. Spectacular!

The message, of course, was that Classic Cleaners can almost always get out the toughest stains, even in a beautiful wedding dress. People may not ordinarily use wedding gowns as table cloths, but gowns do get stained during the ceremony (from dragging on the ground) and during the reception (champagne and food).

After you have worn your beautiful gown, take it to Classic Cleaners and have it cleaned and preserved–it will continue to look great for many, many years to come!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Recently on this blog, we’ve told two wedding gown restoration success stories:

Classic Cleaners of Indianapolis restores improperly cleaned wedding gown to glorious beauty!

Classic Cleaners restores 1947 wedding gown–beautiful bride wears it with pride!

We use the same processes in Classic Cleaners’ safe, gentle, and highly effective wedding gown restoration service and Classic Cleaners’ safe, gentle, and highly effective cleaning and MuseumCare preservation service for wedding gowns.

The main difference between the two services is this: We restore wedding gowns that have become discolored or otherwise damaged over time, and we clean and preserve recently worn wedding gowns so that they do not become damaged over time. Of course, once the gown is restored and worn again in a ceremony, it needs to be preserved thereafter to keep it beautiful for the next bride in your family.

One of the tools we use to preserve your precious gown is our archival-quality wedding gown preservation box. In this post I’m including two pictures of the box. The first is a professional photograph of the box, which, as you can see, has an inner box with a see-through window and an outer box.

The other photo is not professional (I took it!), but I’m posting it here to show you that we put our preservation boxes on display in many of our stores. In the display models, the outer box has been cut away to show the inner box, but, of course, that’s just for display.

Classic Cleaners’ archival-quality wedding gown preservation boxes have many special features to keep your gown clean and odor-free while preserving its original beautiful color as time goes by. As we say on our wedding gown preservation page (linked to above),

We layer your gown with acid-free tissue and carefully fold it into an acid-free, archival-quality preservation box. We store metal buttons and findings and shoulder pads separately, stuffing the sleeves, bodice, and folds with additional acid-free tissue to prevent hard wrinkles. The preservation box, designed especially for this purpose, allows the gown to breathe, keeping it in perfect condition for many decades to come.

The box itself is made of acid-free materials and lets your gown breathe.

We’ve earned a reputation of having the best wedding gown preservation service in Indianapolis because we take such exquisite care with your gown. For a gratis consultation on your gown, please visit your favorite Classic Cleaners location or contact us at the number below!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

•For immediate help with cleaning, please call (317) 845-5244 or email us
•Share your Classic Cleaners stories and photos on this blog
•RSS this blog

Based on our innumerable successes, we believe Classic Cleaners offers the best wedding gown restoration service in the Indianapolis area. We can truly work miracles with old, stained, yellowed, and otherwise discolored or soiled gowns!

The gown we’re looking at today is a nice one indeed, but seven years ago it was improperly cleaned, resulting in the yellow staining you see in the BEFORE picture.

There is a special art to wedding gown cleaning and preservation (which Classic Cleaners has perfected). One very necessary step is the complete removal of all sugar. A seemingly harmless splash of soft drink can dry clear at first… but turn yellow months or years later through the process of oxidation. Further, ordinary cleaning methods will not remove this sugar. Classic Cleaners, however, has special methods that remove sugar from wedding gowns so that they stay beautiful over the long term.

Okay, let’s take a look at the gown. This is a prime example of a nasty yellow sugar stain.

BEFORE

That doesn’t look like something that would get out very easily, does it? Classic Cleaners to the rescue!

AFTER

Perfection! The yellow sugar staining is all gone, and the gown looks virtually like new. Needless to say, we do not alter or enhance these photos in any way–the effect of our cleaning processes really is this dramatic!

If you or your loved one is getting married, in all likelihood the gown will have great meaning to your family, and you may want future brides to wear and enjoy it in all its beauty. The best thing to do is have Classic Cleaners preserve your precious wedding gown. The cost is quite reasonable, and there is a guarantee, too (click here for our website page).

If, however, you have a vintage or not-so-vintage gown that you’d like to restore, Classic Cleaners is can make your wedding gown beautiful again through our special restoration process–as you’ve seen from the above example (click here for our website page).

With these two options, you’re prepared to give your treasured wedding gown the care it needs and deserves!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Congratulations to Brooke Hynds Mackin, who celebrated her wedding on August 15, 2009. She was the third bride to wear this gorgeous wedding gown, the other two being…

• Brooke’s mother Cindy Timanus Hynds on May 12, 1979
• Brooke’s grandmother Evelyn Galucci Timanus on August 24, 1947

The wedding gown was originally made by Evelyn’s sister-in-law, Mary Gallucci, who, according to the family, was like a mother to Evelyn. When Evelyn was 13 years old, she found a photograph of this dress in a magazine, clipped it out, and asked Mary to make it for her future wedding day. Mary made the dress without a pattern.

Here is Brooke in her gown, which looks virtually as new as it did 62 years ago:

Here is a photo that shows all three brides in the dress (click on photo for a larger image):

How is it possible that a wedding gown of this great age can look so new? Wedding gown restoration by Classic Cleaners can make vintage weddings dresses look virtually like new (click here to learn more).

The technology is truly amazing and produces results like these (“before” on the left and “after” on the right, in case it isn’t clear!):

There is no Photoshop trickery at work here, friends. The dress was really that yellow–and it really is possible to get it that white!

We believe that Classic Cleaners offers the best wedding gown restoration and wedding gown preservation service in the Indianapolis area. You or your loved one can look as beautiful as Brooke did in a classic wedding gown! Please contact us today for a free consultation!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team