Stitches

storing a 40's dress?

i just bought a 40's dress today. its quite heavy and the sleeves and shoulders are made of like crochet lace. i dont know if hanging is such a good idea because of it's weight. but i dont know how else to store it. and ideas? i'm gonna put it in to be dry cleaned, cause i obviously dont wanna store it dirty (its not but you never know) and halls washing machines are a bit vicious. why black crepe paper sorry?

Public Comments

1. If it's nicely laundered already then I'd find a lided box for it and fold it once and keep it wrapped in black crepe paper.
2. Once it's cleaned, if you want to store it in a box, use acid and lignen free paper (try a craft shop) do NOT use any coloured paper, particularly black or crepe paper - the colour will leach out and stain the dress. If you want to hang it, you may have to stitch in some ribbbon to make hanger loops at the underarm seam, then you can fold the crochet top down and it will not stretch, the top, ask the dry cleaners for advice on that - if you can take it to a smaller 'specialist' dry cleaner, rather than one of the chain ones, you may have to sign a waiver if it is particularly delicate as modern chemicals may react with an old fabric, eg change the colour.