I wish I had taken before and after (and during) pictures, but I didn't. My mother in law
refurbished a 1940s bridal gown that I had found on Ebay and purchased for about a
hundred dollars. I will give you the steps she/we took to achieve results and
get it clean and presentable.
Purchase vintage gown. You can find a vintage or antique
bridal gown on Ebay, at an estate sale, thrift shop, on Craigslist, at an
online boutique, auction, or anywhere really.
Have gown dry cleaned. I wouldn't set foot in a vintage
bridal gown without having it cleaned first. I believe it cost my local dry
cleaners about $70 to do my gown.
Inspect any beading or jewels. The rhinestones on the upper
bodice of my wedding gown were dirty, and some had come loose. Also, a number
of them had accumulated rust.
Clean the jeweled area. Use a fabric-safe, non-caustic spray-on cleaner
to gently spritz beaded or jeweled area. My mother in law keeps Basic H, which is made by the Shaklee Company, on hand and it worked perfectly for this purpose. To do this, first put a utility cloth
on the underside/inside of the fabric to absorb liquid. Spray the cleaning
solution onto the affected area. Pat with cloth or paper towel.
Repeat this process until much of the beading and jewels
have lost their dull and grayed or rusted appearance, and returned to their
former luster. Periodically check the cloth that you used to sop up the
dampness that will have accumulated on the inside of the gown. Remove and
replace the dirty cloth with a clean one, and continue spritzing and patting
dry until you have worked on all of the beading and/or jewels in question.
Hang dress to dry. This will take a day or so.
Replace missing, damaged or especially dirty beads,
rhinestones or pearls. This should be performed by someone who has had
experience sewing small beads or jewels on fabric. My mother in law is a
skilled crafter, and was able to replace many of the bad looking rhinestones
with pearls. Because she had incorporated so many pearls into the upper bodice,
she also had to make an executive design decision. Which part of the dress
would have pearls, rhinestones, and/or both? Once she had established a method
of patterning the jewels she then went ahead to painstakingly sew on each gem
until the dress was fully converted to its new look.
Have dress altered to fit you perfectly. I took my wedding
dress to a local seamstress who did a few tricks with the bust area and made it
work for my shape and size. Her price was extremely reasonable and she did as
good of a job as she could, working with what I gave her.
Carefully iron all wrinkles out of dress. The final step is
to neatly press your wedding dress with a warm iron, then store in garment bag
for your marriage day.
Hope this gives you some ideas for how to breathe new life
into an antique or vintage bridal gown!
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