Sno Cones notwithstanding, it was h-o-t at the Summer Festival last month at 146th St. and Gray Road.

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

Andretti Race Team uniforms at Classic Cleaners

When the Andretti Auto Sports racing team was looking for the best dry cleaners in Indianapolis to take care of their racing uniforms, their manager made it clear they meant the best green dry cleaners in Indianapolis.

Since the Andretti team is highly environmentally conscious, their managers were happy to learn that Classic Cleaners was the first dry cleaners in Indianapolis to earn the designation Certified Environmental Drycleaner from the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute.

Classic Cleaners veteran Lorraine Rork (manager of the Bash Street store) took the lead on the ambitious project, organizing the pickup and delivery of the garments. The specialty laundering job includes 75 fire suits along with special flame-resistant underclothes and socks for the race team, plus nearly 200 garments for pit crews and other Andretti staff.  Golf shirts for the team are turned in with each order along with the uniforms.

Each of the Andretti garments is labeled with an individual’s name, beginning with the four principal drivers Tony Kaanan, Danika Patrick, Marco Andretti, and Ryan Hunter-Reay. The racing uniforms are made of a polyester-like, quite heavy, flame-retardant fabric called Nomex.  The undergarments and special socks are made of a special cream-colored cotton fabric (Now you know the “inside story”!).

Lorraine Rork considers the Andretti assignment one of the most exciting she’s handled in her more than twelve years with Classic Cleaners.  She’s become a regular racing fan, keeping track of the Andretti Auto Sports team’s latest two July competitions in Canada, and looking forward to cheering them on (from her Bash Street desk) as they compete in Lexington, Ohio next week and in Sonoma, California and Joliet, Illinois later this month.

It’s always a race for the Andretti team. Meanwhile, though, Classic Cleaners takes extra time and special care to protect the environment while producing top-quality cleaning results. It’s not easy being green, but Classic Cleaners knows how important it is to constantly monitor environmental issues and best practices.

It’s a green light all the way to the finish line for the team of Andretti Auto Sports and Classic Cleaners!

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Don't sing the Holiday Stain Refrain!

Some things just seem to go together.  At Classic Cleaners, two of those things seem to be holidays and stains on clothing!

This July 4th weekend, it was independence and ice cream stains.

On Labor Day, it’ll likely be barbecue sauce stains and blouses.

No doubt, Thanksgiving will combine with turkey gravy stains.

And, after the winter holidays, we’ll see water spots on velvet, and green and red (or blue and white, depending upon customers’ religion!) candle wax on tablecloths.

No matter what the season, the professionals at Classic Cleaners stand ready to put their stain removal skills to the test.

Often, though, what makes the difference between success and, well, less-than-perfect, is time. The sooner you bring your stained garments or table linens in for professional laundering or dry cleaning, the better.  To paraphrase an old saying, a Classic Cleaners stain removal in time, saves nine (out of ten garments).

If there’s a “never-never” for dry cleaning customers, it’s this:

Never, never put away a garment or tablecloth for the season without having it cleaned first!

Before the holiday glow has a chance to fade – or the stains to set in – bring those clothes and linens to Classic Cleaners.

That way, you’ll never be singing the “holiday stain refrain”!

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Classic Cleaners Spnsors the Ice Cream Social

Social? Free? Ice Cream? What’s not to love about that threesome? 

Classic Cleaners, always looking for ways to give back to the Carmel community, is involved again this year as an event and a game prize sponsor at the Village of West Clay’s annual family event.  (Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, for our Ring Toss, and YOU could become the proud owner of a beach ball or Frisbee from Classic Cleaners!)

The annual Village of West Clay Ice Cream Social will be held Sunday June 27th on the Village Green.  If you’ve never been to this event, you’re in for a treat, beginning with the big bike parade.

At Classic Cleaners, we get a kick out of sponsoring events like the Ice Cream Social at the Village of West Clay.  Our work, though, starts when the social ends.  After all, when you combine face painting, cupcakes, ice cream, grass, sweaty kids, and sometimes sweatier parents, what do you get? A lot of stained clothes, that’s what!

Perfect opportunity for you to try our Fluff and Fold laundry service. That way, the only reminders of all the fun – and all the resulting messes – will be baskets of fresh, clean family clothing.  And, if Dad’s gotten a little “hot under the collar” (when Junior beat him at Ring Toss), not to worry.  Classic Cleaners’ professionals will pay special attention to the inside collar of his favorite golf shirt, delivering it crisply pressed on a hanger.  (What’s not to love about that?)

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

“Shorts are a garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, covering the upper part of the legs,” begins a Wikipedia write-up. “They are called ‘shorts‘ because they are a shortened version of trousers, which cover the entire leg.”

Yes, we know. 

the long and the short of - shorts!

IN FACT, THE JUNE MONTHLY SPECIAL AT CLASSIC CLEANERS
IS $3.00 OFF EACH PAIR OF SHORTS!

Shorts styles have changed over the many years our Classic Cleaners technicians have been taking care of clients’ clothes.  Whatever type of shorts you can name – you can bet we’ve cleaned or laundered shorts just like those. (At Classic Cleaners, we check the care label instructions on each garment to see if your shorts belong with your fluff-and-fold laundry order or should be dry cleaned.)
 
Cargo shorts? You bet our professional dry cleaners in Broad Ripple have handled those!.  (Cargo shorts have numerous pockets – don’t forget to search the pockets before turning them over to be dry cleaned or professionally laundered and pressed.)

Bike shorts? Check.  (Originally worn by cyclists to reduce thigh chafing, bike shorts have been adopted as street wear for women under tops or under skirts, our dry cleaners in Carmel. see quite a number of these.)

Jeans shorts? Of course.  (Made out of denim,  jeans shorts may also be called “jorts”. Jeans shorts are popular with both men and women, our Indianapolis dry cleaning technicians report.)

Board shorts? Even those.  (Board shorts were originally designed for surf boarders, but men often wear this easy-going combination of shorts and a bathing suit. Our Classic Cleaners pickup route in Cicero often brings in board shorts.)

Zip-offs? Yes.  (Zip-off shorts are long pants that zip off at the knee, so the wearer can go from pants to shorts and back as the weather changes.)

Flood pants? My, yes.  (These go down as far as the calf, so they’re sometimes called “shants”.)
 
Skorts? Rarely, but yes. (These shorts have a piece of fabric in front that makes them look like a skirt.  The style shows up at our Carmel dry cleaners location every so often.).  

From creased khaki shorts to plaid golf shorts and everything in between, the long and the short of it is this:

When it comes to shorts, at Classic Cleaners, we’ve seen ‘em all!

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

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

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

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!