I've noticed that there are hardly any topics on garment care.
It seems like the general consensus feel we should just automatically know how to do this. But that is not always the case!
We spend so much money on lovely clothes and accessories that we want to keep them looking their best.
So here's some tips on how to keep your clothes looking great!
Firstly,
Dress care!
Washing:
A lot of girls believe lolita clothes should be dry cleaned, well, I don't think they
have to be. Although treated as delicates, they can be washed just fine in any regular washing machine. Usually a temperature of 40 degrees is fine for plain cotton fabric or the like, however 30 degrees is about the maximum I would ever go with a print to prevent the colours bleeding into one another.
Also whatever you do, don't machine wash velveteen garments! They must be taken to a dry cleaner. They are very delicate and require professional cleaning. *on that note don't use sticky tape to remove lint from velveteen, it will pull out the threads and leave bald patches!*
Headbows:
you can safely hand wash headbows without wires, but make sure to spraystarch them afterwards or they will go limp. If you have a wiredheadbow I'd be very careful not to get them too wet by only spongingwith a damp cloth. But be wary, sometimes if they get too wet the wires will rust, stain the fabric and then eventually break.
Stain removal:
This is where it gets slightly more tricky. plain fabrics can handle a bit of scrubbing and maybe stain removal products. But certain brand fabric prints have been known to just melt off the dress with certain stain removers. So be very careful using such products! If you really need to remove a stain from prints try getting the majority off by hand using some soap/ mild detergent and a damp cloth. rubbing it gently will work better as you don't want to make the colours run into one another.
Ironing and keeping the garment's shape:
When setting the temperature, Try not to set it too high on prints. particularily prints with any gold in it, sometimes the print has been known to melt but I wouldn't worry. As long as you keep the heat set to a medium level suitable for cotton and *as Zeruda mentioned* iron the garment inside out or use a cloth between the iron and the dress, this won't happen. If the material is a little thicker however, don't be afraid to turn the temperature up a little.
also working in long, firm strokes helps get stubborn creases out.
Jsks and skirts
first I'd start with the bows, *if they weren't removable* sometimes they go all limp and don't hold their shape well after washing. But that's ok just use a little spray starch on them and they'll perk right up once you've ironed them. Or if you're not allergic to starch in large amounts, you can use water soluable starch and dip your entire Jsk into it.
Ironing the bodice of the jsk is simple lay it flat on the ironing board and iron as you normally would, however the skirt is a little trickier.
I have developed two ways of tackling this problem depending on what shape of skirt we have. (I'm borrowing images from lolitafashion.org to illustrate my point ;)
A line:
These dresses are simple, pull the fabric taught and iron puff sleeves like those are easier to iron whilst the garment is inside out
Gathered:
These are your typical gathered bell shape skirts, there are two ways of ironing this in my household. 1) You can keep the fabric of the skirt taught over the shallow edge of the ironing board then iron out the creases, or 2) you can leave it loose and iron vertically into the gathers gently moving from side to side. It's a little trickier but you can decide to do it whichever way you feel more comfortable!
Pleated:
These can be ironed flat, however if the pleats are narrow like in Angelic Pretty's wonderparty series, you can use step number 2 above!
layered/tiered:
skirts are to be ironed starting from the highest layer saving you from ironing creases into areas of fabric you have already done. again you can choose whether to keep the fabric taught or loose.
Bonnets: When ironing lacy half-bonnets, thebest way to get them to straighten nicely where they´re supposed to andstay ruffled where they´re supposed to is to iron them layer by layer,outermost layer to innermost layer. With not-too-high heat(medium-low, really), because the lace is delicate *contributed by Laia Moon*
Ironing lace:
There are two main kinds of lace used in lolita outfits.
Cotton lace
Needs to be ironed on a medium setting and stretched to look it's best
while
Tulle lace
Holds it's shape pretty well even after washing. But doesn't take very well to high heats, so make sure the iron doesn't stay near it for too long.
While we're talking about laces, quality matters, so you will want to steer clear of nasty itchy nylon lace like this when choosing garments.
All lolitas will know this as the nightmare of all laces. If it was used on your bloomers you would know that's for sure! If you have a garment with this lace, never ever take an iron near it at all. I will melt almost instantly. So make sure to know the difference before ironing!
That's all the tips I have for today! hope they helped a little.
hope you guys can think of some other great tips too!
