Linen, Quilt & Doll

Caring for Vintage Fabrics

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caring for

Linens, Quilts, Decorative Embroidery

Careful cleaning is essential to prolonging the life of all of your family’s treasured fabric heirlooms–not just wedding gowns. Also, if they have not been stored properly, they may, similar to vintage wedding gowns and vintage veils, need restoration to the true color.

Our archival, museum-quality chests offer the best protection for your precious garments and linens. We have six different sizes that safeguard against accidental crushing or cuts from sharp objects. In some cases our chests, unlike plastic cartons, have survived fires; the chest was seared and scorched, but the contents were safe.

When storing large items such as quilts, the less folding, the better. Look for archival-quality rolling and storage tubes that allow you roll large flat items for storage rather than folding them.

Do remember never to store your family’s heirlooms where there are extreme changes in heat and humidity: do not keep such things in the attic, which is too hot, or in the basement, which is too damp. Worse, pipes in the basement can break and flood your treasures with water.

If you plan to display your family heirlooms, remember that exposure to direct light will bleach the color and yellow them. If your treasures are small enough to frame and you area going to hang them, be sure to consult a conservation framer who will mount them on an archival background and shield your fabrics with special glass that screens out ultra-violet rays. Large flat items should be hung on a roll to prevent breaking the fibers. In either case, hang your heirlooms somewhere such as a hallway where they will be in not be exposed to direct light.

Special glass or fiberglass cases are available for displaying three dimensional objects.

Uniform & Tuxedo

care

uniform and tuxedo

cleaning

Does your uniform or tuxedo need cleaning? Careful cleaning is essential to prolonging the life of fabric, which can have a shelf life of 200 years if it is treated properly. Whether the uniform you treasure is military, athletic, marching band, or an insignia garment of any kind, our Certified Wedding Gown Specialists™ are experienced cleaners who know how to care for your uniform. And we also specialize in caring for tuxedos.

Even vintage uniforms and tuxedos that are yellowed and stained can successfully be cleaned and restored.

Hand Cleaning: Our Anti-Sugar Stain Treatment

Our Certified Wedding Gown Specialists™ carefully hand clean your uniform with gentle solutions that dissolve the different kinds of stains. Plus extra steps are taken to be sure that all stains–both seen and unseen–are removed because spills such as soda, wine and cake can dry without leaving a visible mark. These sugary stains, which are not dissolved during ordinary drycleaning, will caramelize into ugly brown stains. Once all stains are dissolved, your uniform is rinsed in pure solvent until it is completely clean.

Uniform and Tuxedo Preservation

Keep your uniform or your tuxedo in the family the right way with the uniform preservation service you can trust. Your completely clean uniform or tuxedo will be carefully layered with acid-free tissue and folded into an acid-free, archival-quality preservation chest that protects it from exposure to light and air. No chemicals are added. When it is to be used again, return your uniform or tuxedo preservation to any Certified Wedding Gown Specialist™ in more than 500 cities around the world, and your uniform or tuxedo will be inspected and pressed at no charge.