How to Clean Your Dress

Most formal dress labels indicate that you should have your dress professionally dry cleaned, but dry cleaning can be expensive. 

Luckily, as long as your dress isn’t rayon, acetate, leather, or suede, you can easily clean it at home using water and soap, saving yourself money in the process.

1. Pour 2 tablespoons of Dawn 4x Concentrated dish soap into a bucket, tote or bathtub. Fill with cold tap water. The running water should make the soap sudsy. 

Oxiclean can also be added if your gown needs some extra TLC. 

2. Plunge your gown in and out of the sudsy water until thoroughly wet. If your gown needs excessive cleaning, allow it to soak for 20-30 minutes before continuing with the cleaning process. If needed, your dress can be left to soak overnight, just be sure your soap has been mixed well in the water. 

If there are particularly dirty areas (underarms, hem line) apply the Dawn soap directly to the area and gently scrub with a soft toothbrush. Do not allow the soap to sit on the fabric without scrubbing, it can leave a blue stain behind! 

3. Be sure to thoroughly clean the underarms and neckline of the dress with a soft toothbrush even if there isn’t any visible grime as this is where sweat, deodorant, and makeup or tanning lotions end up and can cause discoloration. If there is beading, sequins, or lacework, be extra gentle to avoid damaging the detailing. Double check along the hem for dirt and possible damage. 

4. Empty your bucket or tub and fill it with clean, cold water. Rinse the gown by plunging it in and out of the clean water until it is thoroughly rinsed and there are no more soap suds. 

5. For faster drying, gently wring out as much water as possible, then hang the gown, allowing the remaining water to drip off and then air dry. 

Otherwise, gently wring out as much excess water as possible. When the gown is no longer dripping, lay a bath towel flat on the floor or a table. Lay the gown flat on the towel. Starting at the top of the gown, roll it up in the towel. As you roll, press the remaining water out. Once completely rolled up, unroll the towel and the gown. Repeat with a second dry towel if needed.

Continue to transfer the gown to clean, dry towels, rolling them together until water is no longer dripping from the gown. 

Transfer your gown to a flat surface. Reshape it and allow it to dry.

Note: do not allow the dress to touch other fabrics for an extended period of time while wet. This can cause the dyes to transfer to one another.