Can a Handmade Wedding Dress Be Cleaned and Preserved?

Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak – And this is what handmade wedding dresses perfectly do.

Unlike mass-produced gowns, handmade wedding dresses comprise intricate lacework, hand-sewn embellishments, and bespoke tailoring, so they easily reflect a bride’s unique personality. However, with their unique charm comes the responsibility of proper care, especially when it comes to cleaning and preservation.

While cleaning and preserving a handmade wedding dress is possible, it requires a thoughtful approach to ensure that its delicate craftsmanship and sentimental value are maintained for years to come.

In this guide, we will discuss what it takes to clean and preserve a handmade wedding dress.

Why Homemade Wedding Dress Cleaning and Preservation is Important?

Like any other wedding dress, your handmade wedding gown may get stains of dirt, sweat, food, and wine. And these stains can permanently set into the fabric of your gown, tarnishing its pristine beauty.

Moreover, environmental factors like humidity, fluctuating temperature, UV light, pollution, etc., will wreak havoc on your dress and lead to discoloration and yellowing, especially if stored improperly.

So, the only way to prevent discoloration and yellowing of your wedding dress is to have it cleaned and preserved to remove both visible and invisible stains before storing it.

Can You Clean and Preserve a Handmade Wedding Gown on Your Own?

While cleaning and preserving a wedding dress on your own is possible, it is generally not recommended, especially for handmade gowns. The intricate details and delicate fabrics used in handmade dresses require specialized knowledge and equipment to clean without causing damage. Professional cleaners and preservationists have the expertise and tools necessary to handle these delicate garments properly.

The Risks of DIY Cleaning

Cleaning a handmade wedding dress at home involves several risks:

Damage to Delicate Fabrics: Handmade dresses often use delicate fabrics like silk, lace, and tulle. Improper cleaning techniques or harsh cleaning agents can easily damage these materials.
Color Bleeding: The dyes used in handmade dresses can sometimes bleed when exposed to water or cleaning solvents, leading to discoloration.
Damage to Embellishments: Handmade dresses often feature hand-sewn embellishments like beads, sequins, and embroidery. These details can be easily damaged or lost during DIY cleaning.

What Should You Consider When Cleaning and Preserving a Handmade Wedding Dress?

Generally, all commercially crafted wedding dresses come with care instructions. These instructions indicate some crucial information about wedding dress fabric and, ideal cleaning method for individual pieces of wedding dress, such as the veil, embellishments, train, etc.

However, this is not the same for a handmade wedding dress. They don’t come with any instruction tags. That is why it requires an expert eye before moving forward for cleaning and preservation.

Here is what experts consider before cleaning and preservation of a handmade wedding dress:

Identify the Fabric

A handmade wedding dress may be made of different types of fabric, including charmeuse, chiffon, crepe, jersey, lace, Mikado, organza, satin, shantung, silk, taffeta, and tulle. Not all fabrics can be cleaned with the same approach.

For instance, wet cleaning may be ideal for crepe and tulle, but it can be disastrous for silk. That is why it is crucial to identify the fabric type before choosing the cleaning method.

At Trusted Wedding Gown Preservation, we have a team of skilled and trained experts who understand the difference between different types of fabric and the ideal cleaning method for each type.

So, before we move to cleaning and preservation, our experts thoroughly inspect your dress to find out the different types of stains on your dress. Based on the stains, we create a custom plan to treat different types of stains on your handmade wedding dress.

Identify the Adornments

Just like fabric, it is important to identify the adornments on your handmade wedding dress. Different types of adornments may include beads, sequins, pearls, lace appliqués, or other decorative elements. Some adornments are fragile and may require special handling during cleaning.

For instance, plastic or sequin adornments can get damaged due to heat or dry cleaning, whereas metal adornments can undergo oxidation due to wet cleaning. That is why it is crucial to handle each type of embellishment carefully while ensuring they don’t damage the fabric.

At Trusted Wedding Gown Preservation, our team will identify and catalog all adornments on your wedding gown and ensure they remain beautiful and pristine. We also do repairs and fix the missing adornments of your handmade wedding dress.

The Cleaning and Preservation Process

Once our experts understand the fabric type and embellishment types, we create a plan of action for cleaning and preservation of handmade wedding dresses. However, the process will be the same as it would be for a dress purchased from a boutique.

Your dress will be processed through our state-of-the-art SYSTEMK4 delicate fabric cleaning technology. Our experts will spot-treat both visible and invisible stains on your dress, including those from dirt, grass, body oil, food, wine, sweat, deodorant, etc.

Once we are ensured all the stains have vanished, we move towards the final step, i.e., preservation. In this process, we place your dress on a custom preservation bust to ensure it maintains its shape.

After this, we place it in our acid-free display chest, which has a UV-coated display window. We also help you preserve five additional items along with your wedding dress for free. You can easily showcase your dress to your loved one via a viewing window and relive the moment.

After this, we place the display chest in a preservation chest, which is made up of virtually crush-proof, hard gauge cardboard. It doesn’t let UV light contact your wedding dress, preventing discoloration and yellowing.

Once we are done with the process, we will ship your dress, and you will get your restored and preserved wedding gown within a few days.

Want To Get Your Handmade Wedding Gown Cleaned And Preserved?

When you order your wedding gown preservation kit, you ensure that your handmade wedding gown stays in its original condition for at least 100 years. Order your kit now, and it will arrive on your doorstep within 5-7 business days!