Important facts about your clothes

Dry Cleaned Garments Last Longer. Accumulations of perspiration, grit, and dust particles can shorten the life of your garment. Pressing a soiled garment can permanently set stains which may not be visible to the eye, yet cause permanent damage. Garments which are dry cleaned will last longer if they are cleaned immediately. Delaying dry cleaning after a garment has been stained can also cause the stain to become permanently set.

Care Labels Are Sometimes

Wrong By federal law, clothing manufacturers care label must give you one way to care for your garment. However, dry cleaners see many misleading or downright wrong care labels. If every garment manufacturer that sewed in an incorrect label gave us a dollar, we'd be billionaires. Sometimes your professional cleaner may recommend a cleaning method that will work as well or better. However, if you or your cleaner follow the care label instructions and the garment is damaged as a result, the store that sold it is responsible.

Designs, Patterns, Colours, or Coatings

Some designs, patterns, colours, or coatings are merely painted on or glued to a fabric's surface. The beauty of these surface coatings can be adversely affected or can be totally lost with even the gentlest dry cleaning process or home laundering. You can identify a surface coating by inspecting the reverse side of a fabric. If the colour or design has not totally penetrated the fabric, the garment may be unserviceable.

Garment Construction - Fabric Quality is Tested

The way that the manufacturer constructed the garment has a lot to do with how well it will look and wear after you buy it. Inner facings in suit jackets, collars, lapels, cuffs and blouse fronts may separate and pucker after washing or dry cleaning. Unfinished seam edges may unravel and poorly sewn button holes may come apart. The quality of the fabric will show their true colours, as the strong will survive, and the weak will perish.

Designer Labels Aren't Always the Best

Many fashion designers sell the use of their name to any manufacturer who pays the price. The extra cost for their name is then passed along to you without any gain in quality. Very often the quality is decreased so the garment will remain competitively priced.

Fading Dyes

Fading occurs when a fabric is exposed to sunlight, artificial light or even atmospheric gases. The colour loss is very gradual and often goes undetected because the fabric is gathering soil at the same time. Dyes used on silk, acetate, leather, and suede are most susceptible to colour loss or discoloration.

Metallics Make Fabrics Fragile

Metallic yarn fabrics are attractive but not very serviceable. Friction and mechanical action in wear may cause the fragile metallic yarn to snap. Stains and perspiration may cause the metallic yarn to tarnish. Some metallic yarns are only surface coated and will dissolve in normal dry cleaning.

Rayon Problems

Rayon was the first manmade fibre produced. It gives the look of silk at a fraction of the cost. Rayon is generated cellulose material. Fabrics made of rayon often require a sizing to give body as the fibre has little body of its own. When a sized rayon garment is stained by a water-based substance, spots occur which may be difficult to remove. This is caused by a sizing disturbance caused by the water. Garments made of rayon can be expected to give you more problems than garments made of other fibres.

Delicate Silks

The dyes used on some silk are subject to colour loss and dye bleeding. This may occur in normal wear or during stain removal. Silk may fade from exposure to sunlight or even artificial light. Perspiration will degrade silk; and perfumes and deodorants will affect the fabric colour. Chafing, splitting, and shredding occur in normal wear, especially in lightweight or tight fitting garments.

White Washing

Many white garments are treated with fabric finishes which may be prone to colour changes. Some of these finishes are optical brighteners which may break down during processing. Never launder whites with other colour garments or in an overcrowded washing machine. Never launder or dry clean white garments that are part of a set unless all parts of the set are processed together. It could result in different shades in parts of the set.

Wool

Wool is an excellent fibre. It is warm in the winter and if it is summer weight can even be cool in the warm weather. It looks good and feels good, but all wool is not the same. Wool can be reprocessed or virgin, long or short fibered, and of different quality depending on where it came from and the particular sheep from which it was cut. A cheap woollen garment may be subject to shrinkage, wrinkling, poor dye retention, and shortened life. A wool label alone is not necessarily a guarantee of quality.

Furniture Covers

Furniture covers are subject to severe shrinkage when washed. Since they are usually made to fit snugly, it may be difficult or impossible to replace them on the furniture. Replacing them while still damp may be helpful. Dry cleaning can be desirable to avoid shrinkage but if the fabric was not properly pre-shrunk, even dry cleaning will not help. Never wash or dry clean pillow covers that are the actual upholstery. They are zippered only to obtain a good fit and should be cleaned strictly in accordance with the manufacturer’s care instructions.

Curtains

Sun and moisture can do terrible things to curtains. You know how sun burns your skin. It does the same thing to fabrics but fabric doesn't grow back like skin. Water from rain, humidity, radiator steam, or animals leaves water stains on curtains that cannot be safely removed. When a manufacturer doesn't preshrink the curtain fabric properly, your floor length curtains may become window length after cleaning. Clean curtains only as specified by the care labels