Cleaning a 1952 Vintage Wedding Dress 

Love the video, it helped me soo much! I was terrified to let someone else touch my grandmas 1955 wedding dress with chemicals, so I followed your method. It came out beautifully!! thank you, I really am thankful for this video as there isn't much online about restoring vintage wedding dresses. Thanks again! :)

On the final rinse, fill bathtub with cold water, add a cup of silver hair conditioner, mix well then full cover dress for 15 mins or longer, this will help neutralize any yellow tones and soften the texture slight. I’ve done this for years even on my white towels to brighten them

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I bought a vintage dress at a thrift store for under $10 that I plan on wearing as my wedding dress. I have no idea the age of it but it is definitely yellowed with time. I wasn't sure how I'd get the yellow out but I'm gonna try this!! Thank you so much for posting this

This is so helpful! I found my grandmother's wedding dress from 1953 and it has definitely yellowed over time!

I’ll be doing this next winter. Making my granddaughter first communion dress out of my wedding gown. I had it preserved from Marshall fields but there are noted stains all over the front of the dress. Will definitely be doing this.

your voice is so quiet & the music overwhelmingly loud

Thank you. I am needing to do this with a 107 year old christening gown. My mil's wedding gown is also needing a better cleaning than I have been able to do and hope that this will work on something that has been washed with other cleaners in the past.

Thank you SO much for this video!!! There is almost no info online about whiting a yellowed wedding dress except to take it to a cleaners. And that is not cheep! Thank you for sharing your knowledge :)

Thank you so much for showing this. I once owned a flowershop and I started renting tuxes and sending gowns in to be "preserved", this was not inexpensive but I couldn't get myself to charge what larger town places charged so I really didn't make anything offering this service. Well, one of my very good customers came in to show me that something happened and it became unsealed. To both our eyes was her dress completely filthy like when I sent it in as it was an outdoor wedding and you know the shoes don't last long or get smart and wear white flip flops or Converse like shoes. No one sees them so who cares. Right? But the dress literally had nothing done to it! So I refunded her money and reached out to other shops that offered this service of sending them off to be cleaned and preserved. Recently, our storage was invaded by raccoons and it was like someone just opened everything up and dumped it out. The bottom of my dress was super filthy as we got married at a cute chapel, we'd both done the over the top wedding before and this way whoever wanted to come (we're in Illinois but from AZ, so it was just a 4 hr drive. It was like a big wedding but without tons of expense for everyone else. We got vip at a high end club and drinks were spilled and employees would come running with cloths and holding up my dress. It was pretty cool feeling so special. But then at 4am lots of bottle service and decided we would walk from the Stratosphere to the no longer existing, Riviera where we were staying so basically the entire length of the strip barefoot, so it was horrifying when we woke up. I'm going to give it a try as it wasn't physically damaged by those little boogers that destroyed everything in storage it's just more dirty but not torn. I'm terminally ill, so I want to get it as clean as it can be to give to our daughter in a large shadowbox my husband is going to make so the entire dress can be seen and we will seal it with gorilla glue to help avoid discoloration as much as possible. Wish me luck!! 🤞

I have found through a lot of different concoctions that my best solution for getting aging yellowing out of vintsge clothes is a mixture of both the oxi clean liquid whitner, the reg oxi clean stain removing powder, putting both into warm water to mix thoroughly then a bit of dawn dish detergent or dawn clear if you like, then I just mix all 3 together well with about 2 gallons of warm water and once mixed well I let it soak a few hours 1 or 2 depending on the level of yellowing then I gently move the item around to remove the yellowish and rince then soak with luke warm water a few times. All in all mine rake up to 24 hours too. Pretty much the same process but the dawn really helps get that extra dirt and yellowing out. Also this is NOT good for colors! Just whites and really light colors like ivory, white, etc..

Wow I wish I had found you back before I tried to work on my mom 's wedding gown. It had been "heirloom preserved ". And stored in her parents home for 42 years in Florida. When she brought it home all my sisters and I wanted to see it as we had only seen a few pictures. When it was opened the smell of chemicals about killed us. Needless to say it was packaged back up and stored in her closet. About 2-3 years ago my Dad gave it to me so I could make keepsakes for my siblings. I was working with a group of talented ladies who turned wedding gowns into gowns. Bonnets and wraps that are used for infants who are born to soon or are in the NICU and don't make it home. So I followed their advice for cleaning it. One thing they use is a mixture of vodka and vinegar which helps get rid of oders. Then I mixed warm water and oxy clean and dreft. I put the gown in this solution (which I had in a large container) and let it soak. I would come back every 5-10 minutes and gently move it around. The water changed like yours did so I rinsed it and added clean solution and repeated the process again. I wish I had never touched it. This was a handmade custom silk and lace gown from 1950. When I opened the box the lace and veil crumbled into crumbs in the box. That should have told me to stop. (This was before I had touched anything). Well when I went to start rinsing it for the last time the material started shredding. I freaked out and was crying. I gently tried to lay out on a table in the laundry room to dry and see if I could salvage anything. I dried into stiff pieces that would shred when moved or touched. The texture of the fabric changed. I still have a few pieces,but I really can't do anything with it,so they sit wrapped up in acid free tissue paper. Heartbroken and devastated I had to tell my sisters... not a fun time. 😭😭

I was looking for some tips and tricks to get my christening gown which is over 64 years old ready for my granddaughters christening in October. Thank you

Beautiful dress!

Thank you for your well-detailed vid sharing of this very helpful.

I’m remaking my bridal veil from 1973, (what 45 years ago? YIKES) for my baby (she’s 27, last child) getting married May 18th this year. The veil is quite IVORY from age. I do not remember it being THAT ivory. Her dress is a slight blush with a very pale ivory trim. So....... I’m going to try the clorax soak and hope for the best. Like it will bleach it but not too much. I told her that I’ll have it done in plenty of time before the wedding so she can buy another if I fail or she hates this one. Thank so much for you great video. Good luck, best wishes and God bless!!!!!!

Came out so beautiful luv :)

Britney, I knew I loved your channel from when I saw you do the invisable lace - and to find out you're also Canadian too! Love it! To show so much respect for your grandmother to name your company after her. Bravo!! I'm wondering if Borax would have perhaps been better for getting it whiter. Borax and Oxiclean are similar chemically as they are both in the sodium family and I think they work by absorbing oxygen ( basically absorbing water molecules and coverting to hydrogen peroxide - which bleaches) You may have to have a chemist confirm it....I think Borax is slightly stronger and is known to be an effective whitening agent. anyhow - love your channel!

I have a true vintage white dress and it had flowers so I mainly want to clean the armpits right away after wearing today.

Great video! Very informative! I have a 1950s wedding dress I'm trying to clean, it's a silk and satin blend, but the original color is ivory, so I can't bleach it. It has a few very minor stains smaller than my fingernail but one large coffee/tea stain on the shoulder and some perspiration stains. I was advised to soak it in cold water with some borax so soften the stains until I can rub them out. I was told warm water would dissolve the fabric. It's been sitting in water for over a day and I change the water every 12 hours. I was thinking of using a tad bit of Oxiclean to speed the process, do you think that would lighten the dress? Err. Would you suggest me using a spot treatment?

My first grandson was born today i found his father's christening gown it's really yellow in some spots will this work for cleaning a 1995 silk satin cotton blend?

Non chlorine bleach works well also.

Take the zipper out? How on Earth can you take zippers or hooks out/off? I'm really curious, this would be so convenient with my little girls clothes as they always catch in the washing machine. Very beautiful dress btw! Thanks for the help. I'm actually just looking for a gentle way to wash my toddlers Lacy dresses so thank you! I'll try this method out with the gentlest soap I have.

Then the clarification! Whew!

can you do this with a. dress that has "bling" on it?

Is this satin? I have a vintage ballerina dress and I'm not sure how to wash it. It has no tags but I'm pretty sure the top is satin and the bottom tulle with a satin lining.

Oh my gosh I think I lost hearing in my right ear.....

I have a dress from 1948, never preserved, would it b safe procedure to clean

What are the 2 powders that you used to soak the dress? the result is pretty amazing :)

I cannot tell the material of this dress, will this method work for any dress material? Also, you mention to take out anything metal, but do you think beading from embroidery work would cause any issues? The bodice of my grandmother's dress from around the same era is entirely embroidered with a beaded pattern and is the most yellow thing I've ever seen! But I'd love to use it as my wedding dress in the future..

So your process did not weaken or damage the lace parts of the dress? I want to do this with my mom’s dress but I’m worried about the lace falling apart

How would you clean something that has a lot of metal parts like eyelets and steel bones?

Hi! I recently inherited a ball gown that I would like to wear to my senior prom, it has a full tulle skirt that has become gray/yellow but the top is completely beaded with false pearls, would I still be able to do this with the beading?

great advice but that loud music...omg

Hi! Thank you for the wonderful video! However, I must ask; can I use the same method on my mothers’ Monique Lhuillier gown from 2000? It is 100% Silk Charmeuse, silk lining and tulle. I don’t trust dry cleaners with such treasured piece. Thank you.

Can you restore my Grandmothers 1954 wedding dress? Its discolored and stained and I'm terrified to give it to anyone to clean it. I've been told the yellow is impossible to get out... but you got yours out, which makes me skeptical on these cleaners knowledge of cleaning vintage dresses.

what is in the spray solution at the beginning of the video? my grandmothers wedding dress is kinda yellow too and I want to wear it for my wedding!

when are you posting part 2?:D

I have no way to remove my zipper! My gown is slightly yellow due to old age, but i dont want to not be able to zip. Solutions??

what is dry "L" spray? why didn't you show the bottle? does it remove mildew? can barley hear you over the soundtrack ...

It looks like it did before but just more

i actually liked the yellowish tint better.

2019????

does this cleaning process include 100% silk jackets

What’s with that music?

Pause at 6:24!! Ohh la la the white beaty

Is this a silk gown?

Music too loud

Cute, that's my name!

Did you wash and rinse in tepid or cold water please? I have a 1944 satin wedding gown to clean 😊

The music is so loud compared to the volume of the speaking. It's hard to watch.

2 min she said ... before it goes in the wash. I’m like big eyes.. really?!!!

I love this video but you are very soft voice and the music when not talking goes loud so I had to keep changing my volumes.

The sound sucks. Blasted by music then extremely quiet verbal instructions.

Please wear gloves!