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Clean Your Wedding Gown at Home!
Hello Newlyweds!
I just got done cleaning my wedding gown 5 months after I wore it. It had that car dust from the car door (that no matter how good the machine is, cannot be cleaned by an automatic car wash) and as E-How.com put it, "trains make for a great broom to nicely sweep dust etc. from church floors (paraphrased)". My husband and I were, as most of you probably are as well, on a tight budget, and even the cheapest dry cleaning job we could find ($75) was beyond our's.
So I searched the internet on ways to clean your gown at home. I'd heard of Purel and other home dry-cleaning items, but then I came across e-how's method of cleaning your gown at home.
As it turns out, drycleaners will most likely throw your gown in a industrial sized washing machine anyway. So since my husband and I havn't invested in a washing machine yet, our bathtub served for the "dry-cleaners".
All it cost me was about $2.50 for a bottle of DAWN dish detergent. And all I had to do was make a bowl of DAWN water and use a toothbrush to brush out the stains first(as e-how stated, dry cleaning can't get out sweat stains because of sweats water solubility, figures...). It was GREAT!! I ended up soaking the hem for 2 days (I never got around to brushing the hem clean), and I came back to an almost clean hemline! It was awesome.
Since my dress was a polyester satin gown, I hand washed it inside out (recommended especially if there's a lot of beading etc.) with cold water and regular laundry detergent (for machine owners the delicates setting will work), but if it's a silk/satin gown using the DAWN detergent is recommended. It is now hanging in my shower drying (don't put it in the dryer!! Heat can damage and/or shrink the fabric.) and I'm so glad I didn't get ripped off for a dry cleaning job.
You know what they say: "You want something done right? Do it YOURSELF!".
Greatest Blessings!
Deborah F.
Ps. Here's the link to E-How's article on cleaning bridal gowns at home. Enjoy!
http://www.ehow.com/how_4457697_machine-wash-satin-wedding-gown.html
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