Gonna Wash That Dirt Right Out of My Hem

Confession: I never had my wedding dress cleaned or preserved after our wedding.

I fully intended to have this done immediately, of course, but I couldn't decide on the best method for preservation. To have my gown stuck behind a window in a box for eternity didn't appeal to me. I mean, what if I want to try it on once a year (which I only did once on my first anniversary -- got it zipped!) or take it out and admire it occasionally (which I never do)? And who or what am I really preserving it for anyway? I don't know a single bride that wore her mother's dress, though I have seen dresses disassembled and beautifully repurposed for Christening gowns. And then there's the expense. I just didn't see spending upwards of $200+ to have this done.

So, in true Mindy fashion, I did nothing about it. I remember years before I was married I visited my sister and saw her wedding dress hanging on the back of the laundry door and asked, "You STILL haven't had your dress clean and preserved?" with a tsk-tsk attitude. Now who's the pot calling the kettle black white?

Here we are 5 years later and I don't know what got me inspired to decided that yesterday would be the day to clean my dress! Maybe it's me wanting to tackle the "To Do List" (this item was way down at the bottom). Maybe it's that our newlywed friends were coming over for dinner and she washed her dress in her bathtub recently. Whatever it is, on a whim I pulled the dress out from under my bed, filled the tub, turned the gown inside-out and lowered the skirt down in the Woolite and water. The decision to clean it was so spur-of-the-moment that I didn't have the foresight to take it to my parent's much larger soaker-tub (or take a "before" photo). So amid the bath toys and baby shampoo was satin and beads.

I started by using a soft toothbrush to tackle the dirt, and I was pleased that the now-brown champagne stains came right out. The toughest part was the the black (yes, black) dirt along the hem. After a few minutes I realized there's a lot of hem! Yards and yards of skirt and train. Resigned, I just left it to soak in the hot water for a few hours. When I pulled it out I was amazed at how much dirt had come out and was sitting in the bottom of the tub. I then hauled the dress (very heavy when wet!) into our other bathroom and draped it over the shower doors to dry.

Now that it's dry, I am so pleased with the outcome! I think I will still take it to my parents' house and do one more soak in their tub and scrub the hemline again and then a thorough rinse (which I didn't really do) before returning it to its spot under our bed. And maybe I'll even go one step further and replace the beads that hold the bustled train that popped off when party guests accidentally stepped on my dress.

And, yes, since it was out, I tried it on.  :)