How would you clean this dress?

[Santablobby]

I have a lovely 1920s-style beaded dress with fringed bottom, bought online. Unfortunately, it wasn't fully clear on the website but when it arrived, it is marked as "don't dry clean, don't wash, sponge out marks only" or words to that effect.

As I bought it for wearing to parties where I do a lot of dancing though, it really needs a proper clean! I already hand-washed it once before, very gently, and most of it survived fine - however the fringes at the bottom started to unravel and left lots of long dangling threads which then took me ages to sort out - had to cut off all the unravelled threads while trying to keep the shape. I then put some fray-stop stuff on the ends, but it's not been washed since so I'm not sure whether that will help for washing or not. So now I've worn it again and really need to clean it, I'm not sure what is the best option:

• Try getting it dry-cleaned, even though it says not to (or at least ask the cleaners for advice)
• Try hand-washing again but risk the fringes getting wrecked again if the fray-stop stuff doesn't work well enough
• Any other options that will get sweat and smells out without spoiling it?

NB in case you're wondering I didn't bother complaining to the place I bought it from, mostly because I'd already had a lot of palaver sorting out a different issue with them, so I didn't think it would get me far. They did say I could return it if I wanted, but it is a lovely dress so I didn't want to do that (and now can't anyway cos it's been washed).

Thank you!

I would give a local dressmaker a call and describe the dress and see what they say. I had a beautiful gown that didn’t know how to clean and they were fab. They know the material better than dry cleaners so their advice is usually much more reliable.

Oh thanks, that might be worth a try. I don't know any local ones but could probably find one.

Is it old ? A lot of dresses from china day do not dry clean it wash but are made from polyester . Dry cleaning is much harsher than gentle hand washing as it's basically a big washer dryer using chemicals instead of water and will be mixed up with other stuff and the fringes will get al tangled up or un ravel .
I'm an ex dry cleaner and I would know what to do with it for the safest result if you brought it to my shop . Dressmakers don't clean stuff !!

Sorry, I should have said what it's made of! Meant to and then forgot.
It is 100% polyester, and is new and vintage-style, not actually old. It's similar to this:
topvintage.net/en/vintage-retro/20s-leonie-fringe-flapper-dress-in-emerald-green
It has an inside layer/lining and an outer layer which is slightly more mesh-like with the sequins and beads attached to it.

And I meant to say it sounds like dry cleaning would definitely be a bad idea then from what you said vase - I think the fringes would either unravel or fall off altogether, which I've also had trouble with (they don't seem to be attached that well, just looped through the stitching so if one end gets pulled far enough they just drop out! I already got someone to sew along the bottom to try and stop them coming loose, but still nearly lost a couple more bits last time I wore it).

It's probably non-washable because of the fragile way it is put together, rather than the fabric. So you need to wash it in a way that does not stress the structure of the dress.

I have a clothes airer with removable racks. When I want to wash something that will not stand up to being tumbled around, I lay the racks across the bath, peg a thin towel firmly across the racks and lay the item out flat on top. Then I can wash it using the shower, with as little movement as possible of the item itself.

In your case, if it's only the upper body of the dress that needs washing , then I would put a washing-up-bowl with sudsy water at one end of the bath and gently wash only the upper part of the dress in that bowl. Then I would lift the dress onto the racks, spread it out carefully and rinse it off with the shower. Leave it to almost dry on the rack, only hang it up when it is no longer heavy with water.

Ziplock bag and put it in the freezer.

The reason they mark the labels as follows not wash and dry clean etc is so there is no comeback to the supplier if you wash it wrong . It's sold as a costume if you like . Loads of Chinese suppliers so this and the polyester will wash absolutely fine . A lot of ball gowns and wedding dresses are made of polyester and are washable . The fringe is the issue so hand wash carefully is your only option . You could of course get a dressmaker to remove and replace the fringe which we have done before and after washing for customers in the past .

Thanks all! So it sounds like the best option will be to very carefully hand wash it, keeping the fringes as dry as possible (and I might put a bit more of the fray stopper on first to see if it helps). I'll try it later and let you know how it goes!

And that's a good point about replacing the fringes too - if they go really bad from the washing, I could look into replacing them totally (probably a better option than removing and replacing the current ones given they are a bit rubbish anyway!).

Turn it inside out and spray with febreeze.

Ha I did that once already goose but after wearing it for another party and doing much dancing, I don't think that would cut it again!