So you hit this awesome Estate Sale over the weekend and brought home a great haul. Now you have a pile of great vintage goodies to clean, research, photograph, and list. Where to start? Well, you can’t take photos until the items are clean, so lets start there.
Dig into that pile of clothing. Chances are it smells like mothballs, smoke, old stale cologne, or who knows what else. There are probably a few stains and maybe some moth holes, loose threads, or missing buttons. You can’t very well sell it in this condition. That fabulous fifty’s dress is going to need some TLC before you can get to the next step.
What kind of fabric is this?
First off, determine what type of fabric it’s made of. Is there a tag, great, if not is it natural or synthetic? Washable, Dry clean only? Colorfast, delicate, sturdy? Does it need to be ironed? Crush a corner, does it bounce back, or hold the wrinkle? If it holds the wrinkle chances are it’s a natural fabric, silk, cotton, linen, rayon. If it bounces back it most likely has some synthetic elements. Does it feel cool to the touch, linen, satin and rayon are cool to the touch.
Now that you know what type of fabric you are working with, you can start the process. If the fabric is washable start by soaking in plain water overnight, rinse with fresh water when the water gets cloudy. If stains persist, add a bit of baking soda to colorfast fabric. Soak and gently scrub the stain to loosen it. You can also try Biz or Borax added to the water. Older stains may take several days to come out so be patient. Once the stain has been removed as much as possible hang or lay the item flat in the sun to dry. Unless you are sure about the outcome, never wash vintage items by machine.
More fabric, more info
Here is a great place to start:
Pauline of www.fashion-era.com has graciously allowed us to link to her site. She has amassed an incredible amount of information over the years. The link to her main page is here: http://www.fashion-era.com/index.htm
The link to her information on cleaning vintage fashion is here:
Pauline has asked to please not reproduce her hard work. If you find her vast listings of information helpful please donate to her site here.
You can also find more Vintage Cleaning Tips on Pinterest by following this board. http://pinterest.com/vintagerenude/vintage-cleaning-tips/
Do you have any fabulous tricks for cleaning vintage fabrics? If so please post them here, or on the team resource thread.
Pam… thank you so much for the helpful hints!
I needed this!
I am saving this info for later – I always have something vintage to wash! Thanks for the great tips!
Liz
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MissingHeirloom
Great and helpful post! Thanks for writing.