Washing vintage dresses?

[kaninekleenup]

Ok, I’m cleaning out an old house..there is probably 100 old shirts and dresses from the 1950s-80s. Guess I need to learn about selling vintage clothing.. I am going to keep the colorful ones and the ones that have eye appeal. I haven’t got room for all of them. The owner threw out a dumpster full of stuff before they called me!!! question 1- how should I clean them? They have been in a closet for a LONG time..
2- how detailed on measurements should I be? Some garments have the size on them, so most should be the same.. thanks! I’m overwhelmed which this cleanout, luckily the people are not in a hurry so I have time to go thru stuff. Thanks for any thoughts.. Brian

[Mark S]

Kaninekleenup,

Do the clothes really need cleaned? If they were hanging up in a closet they may just smell. If they just smell, you can either sit them outside for a day or so. Or, you can use an ozone generator.

I have posted about the ozone generator in the past. Here is what I wrote:

I have a story to tell about how I got smoke out of some cool racing snowmobile jackets. I bought the 2 jackets at a garage sale today.

I really like them and they will go for about $100 each, but they smelled like smoke. I know there are a lot other methods that have been discussed on the blog, but I don’t think I have heard about this one.

My wife bought an Ozone Generator and we tested it out on the jackets. It took about 1 hour of running the Ozone Generator with a small fan in a small bathroom. The jackets smell great now.

These are the type of generators that are used to get the smell out if someone died in a house. I just used the “Bare Bones 3500 mgh Ozone Generator” which is $49 and good enough for what I need.

I look forward to using this in the future to get nasty smells out. If you buy it off the site below, it is $49 plus $10 flat shipping. If you buy it on Amazon, it is $49 with free shipping (not sure if you have to have Prime or not).

Check out this site.

— Good site on how ozone works

http://www.ozoneapplications.com/products/Residential/q&a_ozone.htm

Note: Ozone is very powerful and must be used with caution. Everyone must decide on their own if it is right for them. I forgot to mention in my text above that after you turn off the ozone generator, you should keep the bathroom door shut for an hour with the bottom of the door covered. Ozone doesn’t stay around long., just don’t expose yourself or any living thing to it while it is going.

Mark

[Sharyn]

Vintage clothing is sized differently than clothes today, at least for women’s. Since Americans are getting bigger, the manufacturers changed the sizes so that the number is now smaller than what it used to be. What was a size 10 is now an 8 and so on. The best way to deal with it is to list as many measurements as you can.

You can also google up a size measurement chart and figure out the modern size and add that to the listing. “Vintage size 10, Modern size 8”. Just remember that you are measuring the clothing, but the person would be smaller. So, a 36″ waist measured on pants might be a person with a 35″ waist.

If you do wash them, just be careful. Either hand wash or use the delicate cycle on the washing machine, and then let them air dry. Or consider dry cleaning for something really delicate.

[PDX_Cyndy]

I deal with vintage clothing cleaning on a case by case basis. Many clothes starting in the 60s were made with a polyester that is pretty indestructible, so those go into the wash machine. If clothing has yellow/brown stains from age, and they are not silk or wool, I give them a long soak in Oxiclean. Vintage rayon is very risky to clean yourself. I have a suede coat that reeked of cigarette smoke. Hanging it outside for several sunny days did not work. I ended up putting it in a cardboard box, and placed a sock filled with baking soda inside. That did the trick. I have been able to rescue some pretty nasty clothing items. I would love to find a huge estate of vintage clothing like that. Good luck!

[kaninekleenup]

Thanks guys.. the clothes are the last thing I will be working on. Out of my comfort zone so I’m concentrating on stuff I know first. Lots of stuff. There is a giant pile in my living room and I have to get it put away before thanksgiving…

[Author]

Posts