Getting stains out of a dress.

[kreecherlivesupstairs]

My daughter is going to be a bridesmaid in January. She is not a dress wearing dolly so I was thrilled to be lent a dress for her to wear. The only drawback is the state of it. M wore it to do the same job and she is a total minger. I am not sure what the stains are, probably food and drink. How can I loosen them before washing? We live in Switzerland and don't have access to many cleaning products. If it's any use, the dress is 64% polyester and 36 nylon. I did think about dry cleaning it, but, as it would cost around 30 pounds with no guarantee of stain removal, changed my mind

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i find washing up liquid applied neat to the stains and rubbed in helps get most things out. is the dress shiny? if it is i would be doubtful about washing it. if you can post a pic of the dress i might be able to be more help, i,m no good with the whole what polyester/nylon stuff, but can usually tell by looking at something.

Thanks for the tip. The dress is slightly shiny but also has a sort of ribbon sewn on top in swirly pattern. i'd love to post a picture, but that would be well beyond my technical capability. It is my washing day today (yes they are allocated in Switzerland) so I'll give the fairy a go and let you know what happend.

Nancy you are a star. Dress came up as good as new, not sure that using dh's toothbrush to work the fairy in was a good idea though.