Lolita Washing/Cleaning Thread

[Anonymous No.9647877]

I thought one of these threads would be good, with the argument on whether people were washing their taobao dresses correctly. Advice for cleaning stained or yellowed pieces or prints that are known (or currently not known) for running would be helpful too.

Do you wash your dresses in a specific way? Do you get them dry cleaned?
Personally I chuck everything in the wash in washing bags and air dry everything, never had any problems yet.

[Anonymous No.9647978]

>>9647877
always check care tags before doing anything, but i take "dry clean only" with a grain of salt unless it's clearly very delicate or flocked or something.

run waist tie under cold water, rub a little, apply a little bit of the detergent you're going to use, rub a little, and see what happens. if nothing happens, you should be good to go letting your garment soak in a bathtub or washing machine (if using the washing machine, don't let it go through its typical cycles. just use it to soak.). cold water and mild detergent always. and remember to treat stains first (i use Zout) before cleaning all over.

blouses get turned inside out and put into bags before i let them soak. oxyclean does magic on yellowed white blouses. let them soak for a long time if there's any yellowing.

once everything is done soaking, rinse again with cold water to get product out.

dry according to whatever the care label says. i typically hang to dry unless the garment has shirring that could potentially be stretched by hanging. in those cases i just lay it out on a towel or fold it over the back of a chair or something.

this is probably all kind of obvious but a lot of people i know are afraid of laundering their lolita stuff when it's actually really really easy.

[Anonymous No.9647984]

>>9647877
Has anyone tried putting prints in the wash with those color catching sheets that prevent fabric bleeding if they put their dresses in the wash? I'm curious if those actually work or not.

[Anonymous No.9647990]

Does anyone know how to get out subtle pit stains? Asking because I bought a dress on fril that did not have them pictured so I am screwed. They aren't super bright but they are definitely noticeable. They are on Maracon Tartan Rider in mint.

[Anonymous No.9647994]

>>9647978
Some brands will give you a fabric sample if you buy new from them. Run that through whatever cleaning method you want to use if you don't want to risk damaging your waist ties.

Also if there's lace that isn't sewn down, especially tulle lace, I'd recommend gently tugging it flat while it's still wet so it doesn't dry wrinkled.

[Anonymous No.9648016]

My guide to cleaning any lolita garment is the laundry tag. There's a table somewhere on LiveJournal that translates Japanese laundry symbols so you know what they mean. If a piece is machine washable, I will usually turn it inside out and run it in a delicate cycle with cold water, and then hang to dry. If it needs to be washed by hand, I usually do it under cold water as well, and leave it to dry afterwards. Things that usually say dry clean only I will most likely take to the dry cleaners, unless the previous owner said they experienced no issues washing it themselves or it's a Bodyline piece (usually those say dry clean only but I just machine wash them). Socks and bloomers and things with no tags will typically do well with machine washing as well. I also don't wash my lolita main pieces after every use. Blouses and socks and anything that touches skin I definitely wash after every use, but JSKs and skirts can go without washing for a few uses since they don't directly touch your skin. For OPs it depends on how much I sweat but I wash those after almost every use.

I find that oxyclean works wonders for stains, even if they have been there for a while. It works really well for yellowing fabrics too, and safe on colors. If you are worried about trying it though, run a test spot first.

I have an infanta JSK that doesn't have a laundry tag and has dark colors such as burgundy and black with ivory in the print, so if anyone knows how to go about cleaning infanta dresses specifically, do let me know!

[Anonymous No.9648018]

>>9648016
I forgot to mention this but before washing I always get rid of detachable bows, waist ties, and shirring ribbons especially if I'm machine washing a garment since those can either break or tear the fabric.

[Anonymous No.9648046]

Has anyone gotten the recent dress by abyss museum? I'm a little dissapointed with the print quality(it looks kinda bleed-y), there's no care tag and I'm scared to wash it in case the print _is_ bleed-y and runs, but I've also heard that not all dresses can be dry cleaned.
Sorry if this is newb teir shit, I am new to printed dresses.

[Anonymous No.9648065]

>>9648018
Another note on detachable bows. If the bows are the same fabric and color of the main piece you should wash them together with the main garment (but detached of course). All fabric will fade and washing sets together will help keep all pieces the same color. This applies to sets like a jacket and jsk too.

Of course if the detachable item shouldn't be washed don't wash it with everything else.

[Anonymous No.9648104]

>>9647990
You can try sort of spot washing it. Get a nice toothbrush that isn't dirty and good clear laundry soap. Put a little room temperaturish water on there and scrub with the toothbrush to get suds, rinse with same water. Don't worry if it gets a little wet/soapy that's why we used clear soap w/ no dyes. Let it air dry, might need to re-iron a little.

[Anonymous No.9648112]

Any tips on cleaning brand bags? I live in a really damp place and left an innocent world bag in storage, now there's a bit of fuzzy mold grown on it, how can I clean it without using bleach/not damaging the color?

[Anonymous No.9648115]

As long as the dress has no velvet I just put them in the washer on cold delicate cycle with around 2 or 3 color catcher sheets (depending on the color of the dress). Has worked out fine for me, and was even able to wash a red Magical Etoile OP without any red running onto the white.

[Anonymous No.9648119]

As long as the dress has no velvet I just put them in the washer on cold delicate cycle with around 2 or 3 color catcher sheets (depending on the color of the dress). Has worked out fine for me, and was even able to wash a red Magical Etoile OP without any red running onto the white.

>>9647984
Yep they work. See what I wrote above.

[Anonymous No.9648120]

As long as the dress has no velvet I just put them in the washer on cold delicate cycle with around 2 or 3 color catcher sheets (depending on the color of the dress). Has worked out fine for me, and was even able to wash a red Magical Etoile OP without any red running onto the white. Sheets came out bright pink, but the white areas were flawless.

>>9647984
Yep they work. See what I wrote above.

[Anonymous No.9648124]

As long as the dress has no velvet I just put them in the washer on cold delicate cycle with around 2 or 3 color catcher sheets (depending on the color of the dress). Has worked out fine for me, and was even able to wash a red Magical Etoile OP without any red running onto the white. Sheets came out bright pink, but the white areas were flawless.

>>9647984
Yep they work. See what I wrote above. But it's always still a risk cause you never know.

[Anonymous No.9648171]

Has anyone dealt with ink stains or wine stains?

I accidentally dropped a copic marker while drawing onto one of my dresses. Most people suggested using rubbing alcohol to get out copic marker stains but all that did was lift the yellow pigment from the green marker so now I have bluish stains instead.

I also definitely spilled a bit of red wine on a beige/ivory dress and tried using Wine Away but the brown-ish stains are still there.

I guess the lesson here is that I need to be less of a klutz while in lolita.

[Anonymous No.9648195]

>>9648112
Not sure if it will work for pleather, but try to scrape away as much mould as you can with a brush, then use half water half white vinegar to wipe away the rest. Let it dry in the light if you can. I use this on nasty old leather (like, "Vince Neil wore this for 6 months without washing it back in 1988 and it's been in storage ever since" RANCID) and it works magic. The vinegar stops the mould growing back too.

>>9648171
the only thing I can recommend with dry red wine stains is to throw it out. I've had a similar issue with soy sauce-- it's not too hard to remove when wet, soaking in cold water does most of the work for you, but when it's dry, I've only ever managed to get about 80% of the stains out. Salt soak, alcohol, Oxyclean, industrial fuckin stain removers, nothing. Fucking pissed about it too bc it was my first time out wearing Dreaming Macaron and that fabric is a CUNT to clean even before soy sauce is introduced lol

[Anonymous No.9648201]

>>9648195
Thank you so much anon! I was so worried I was going to need to chuck this beautiful bag

[Anonymous No.9648203]

How long does it typically take a dress to dry? Do you wring out the extra water or could that potentially damage the dress?

[Anonymous No.9648212]

>>9648201
99% of the time mould is completely removable with vinegar and with clothes, your hottest washing cycle. I'm heavily into vintage fashion and I mean actual clothes from those eras, so trust me when I say mould is never as bad as it looks! Vinegar and patient dabbing away is magic with mould, water stains, blood etc, just don't try it on wine or it will set the stain.

>>9648203
If it's a heavy fabric, typically all day, lighter dresses only a few hours tops. It's like comparing denim to bedsheets if that comparison helps.
Don't wring out the extra water. A little bit of gentle squeezing from the waist to the hem like you're closing an umbrella is fine just to stop it from fully dripping all over the place, but you're gonna fuck up the fabric wringing it out like it's a tshirt.

[Anonymous No.9648283]

>>9648171
If there’s nothing else like a print or whatever on the beige dress you can try soaking it in hydrogen peroxide for a while. I tend to let bad stains sit for up to a week if I’m doing deep cleaning of any sort.

[Anonymous No.9648284]

>>9648203
Either roll it up in a towel to absorb the extra water or add it carefully (spread it around the machine on the inside of the clothing cyclone) to a load halfway through the spin cycle and let the rest of the cycle get rid of the excess water.

[Anonymous No.9648345]

Are the instructions different for taobao dresses? Someone in the lolita general implied it. I'm now worried because I just bought a few print dresses and I'd rather not have them damaged within a couple of years.

[Anonymous No.9648539]

>>9648195
Shit, I just got Dreaming Macaron. What's the problem with the fabric?

>>9648171
If nothing else works, you could always take them to a professional/dry cleaner shop and see what they can do for you.

[Anonymous No.9648650]

>>9648345
Yes. What does the care tag say and how is it printed? If it's a solid, you're pretty safe to follow normal instructions, but prints, you have to be careful with as most are surface printed.
>Is there any taobao brand that doesn't do surface printing?

[Anonymous No.9648672]

>>9648650

How do I tell if it's surface printed?

There's no care tags, just the brand name label and sizing on the dress. It's Surface Spell's The Rosary jsk, if that helps.

[Anonymous No.9648681]

>>9648672
>http://www.nca-i.com/pigment.html
Check out the inspection paragraph.

[Anonymous No.9648744]

>>9648681

Holy block of text, I think I need an ELI5…

>Pigment prints will show little or no penetration to the underside of the fabric.
>To test the degree of permanence of the pigment print, rub an unexposed seam with a piece of cheesecloth saturated with Volatile Dry Solvent.
>a small sample of the print should be snipped from an unexposed seam. Pin to a handkerchief that is to be drycleaned.

The underside of my dress is white, I suppose that counts as “little or no penetration”. I don’t know about doing the rest of that. What is Volatile Dry Solvent? I’m getting carpet-cleaning hits when I search for it.


This part is worrisome, too:

>Drycleaning may partially or totally remove the pigments in prints, which are soluble in solvent.

Does that mean I absolutely should not dry clean my dress?

[Anonymous No.9648794]

>>9648744
It sounds like you should take it to the dry cleaners (a reliable one) and have them figure it out. VDS is something that they will use for cleaning. But they may come back and tell you it can't be cleaned without causing damage to the print. So...um don't get it dirty?

[Anonymous No.9648808]

>>9648794
>>9648744
Oh, also the dry cleaner can still wet clean your dress, that's why I said to take it to them. It seems like dry cleaning will likely remove the surface print, but wet-cleaning may or may not. But it all depends on what kind of print it is.

Just make sure your dry cleaner knows what they are doing and ask them what they plan on doing to clean the dress. And I would just gently spot clean yourself until you really need to take it in.

[Anonymous No.9648909]

Are APs polyester dresses safe to wash? I think it's fine to throw in a cold wash but I'm not 100% sure.

[Anonymous No.9649077]

>>9648794
>>9648808

There's nothing like that anywhere near me. It's a small town and most dobbies outsource their dry-cleaning, so I'm not really sure they know what they're doing. I might try to find another dry-cleaner in the next city, I suppose.

Thank you for your help, though. If I'd known the dress was this finicky to clean I probably wouldn't have bought it.

[Anonymous No.9649088]

>>9648909
Which particular one and what do the care tags say?

>>9649077
No problem anon. Hopefully the dress doesn't give you too much trouble and you can find a reliable dry cleaner.

[Anonymous No.9649089]

>>9648909

The fabric itself is fine. The trim might not be, but in all honesty I've yet to see any trim on an AP dress that couldn't survive water.

Don't just chuck it in the washing machine though. Turn it inside out, undo all detachable things and do up all the zippers, set the machine on delicates cycle and use cold water only.

[Anonymous No.9649499]

>>9648104
Thank you anon!

Assuming the stains are from antiperspirant, is there anything else I can use besides clear laundry soap?

[Anonymous No.9649655]

Is it possible to bleach out tights to pure white without wrecking them? I just got a pair that are way more cream than I anticipated.

[Anonymous No.9649796]

>>9649655
>Tights
You'll ruin them with bleach anon.

[Anonymous No.9649819]

I have them all dry cleaned after every few wears, I figure if I paid $300+ for them I should pay a few bucks to have them cleaned properly.
One lolita I used to know just threw all her AP into the washer and let them hang dry, which worked and is fine, I guess. I just think if you’re paying a lot for these dresses you should treat them a bit more delicately, especially if you plan to sell them at some point.

[Anonymous No.9649823]

>>9649819
Should rephrase that:
Expensive, complicated (different fabrics, attached pettis, lots of detail work/ribbons), or specialty fabric dresses I have dry cleaned. simple cotton dresses I toss in the wash on delicate and let them air dry. I lay them across those collapsible drying racks on the top with a fan on low blowing on them.
Handmade gets washed and dried with all my other clothing because fuck it, if it gets damaged I can tear it apart and repair it

[Anonymous No.9649829]

>>9649819
you can't dry clean a lot of prints

[Anonymous No.9649961]

>>9649499
Baking soda and sunlight will help a lot.

>>9649655
Assuming that's the actual color of the tights, no. Get a new pair.

[Anonymous No.9650169]

>>9648171
White wine lifts red wine in some cases atleast.

[Anonymous No.9650284]

Does anyone use vinegar in the wash to help set dyes in prints before wearing them? Like how some people do with denim? (I think?)

[Anonymous No.9650291]

>>9650284
White vinegar is a mild bleaching agent and deodorizer. I toss it into most of my loads of laundry because it does a great job of cleaning.

[Anonymous No.9652278]

>>9649499
Nayrt but a solution of 50% Lime-a-way (liquid, not gel), 40% water, 10% All Free and Clear will remove anything having to do with antiperspirant. It's super heavy duty so only do this outside and with rubber gloves. Thoroughly wet fabric with solution, scrub lightly with toothbrush, leave for 20 minutes. Scrub again and wash as normal. Won't hurt the fabric color (tried on black chiffon and meta's red/pink prints) but make sure item is colorfast first.

[Anonymous No.9652652]

If my lolita was clean (from not wearing it in about a year) but it picked up a musty smell in my wardrobe, would I be able to sort this by getting each dress individually with a spray bottle of vinegar, then putting them back after drying? I only have two pillowcases so it would be painful to individually wash every single jsk and skirt I have when they're not even dirty

[Anonymous No.9652928]

I have a few of these saved from the last lolita laundry thread.

If anyone has advice on how to get fuzzies off of mesh, I'd be so grateful. I washed Moitie's Over Tulle Rose OP after washing some towels and now there are little red fuzzballs caught in some of it. Washing again didn't help OTL

[Anonymous No.9652930]

>>9652928

[Anonymous No.9652933]

>>9652930

[Anonymous No.9652934]

>>9652933
my bad I guess I saved that one twice

[Anonymous No.9652980]

How have you all cleaned your Holy Lanterns? Dry cleaning? Figure it's so popular that it's reasonable to be specific

[Anonymous No.9652989]

>>9652980
Curious about this too

I haven't worn mine much, the first time I did I spilled beer on myself (classy) and had to wash it in the sink

It didn't seem to damage the flocking, and no stain was left, but I don't know if its ok to actually wash it in water

[Anonymous No.9653051]

Does anyone have experience cleaning Moitie screenprints? I read that you shouldn't bring them to the dry cleaners so I just handwashed them at home.
A bit of black dye did come out though. But I had a bad experience with dry cleaners ruining my cathedral skirt. The grey is reddish now and probably fading.

>>9652989
>>9652980
Handwashed mine and it was fine.

[Anonymous No.9653074]

Slightly OT but I envy people from countries where dry cleaners on every corner are the norm. Cause if I want to get sth dry cleaned I've to drive for about half an hour or longer to get to a dry cleaner. And I live in a rather large city

[Anonymous No.9653121]

>Do you wash your dresses in a specific way? Do you get them dry cleaned?

80% goes in the washing machine. I have a short 40 minutes/30°C progam which is perfect for most of my lolita clothes. Even prints turn out fine.

I handwash all dresses with chiffon ruffles because once one got damaged even though it was inside a clothing bag. I also handwash some items with weak seams (so basically all JetJ).
Velvet is the only thing I get dry cleaned.

For food stains on your dresses, get them off and wash them immediately. If it happens somewhere on your way, seek the nearest restroom and try to rub off the stain with warm water. Most of the time, the stain will vanish 100% if the stain is still fresh.

[Anonymous No.9653146]

How do you wash prints with glitter in them?

[Anonymous No.9657607]

>>9652980
>>9652989
>>9653051
>>9653146

Strangely enough, all three of these things have the same laundry care symbols on their tag

>Moitie screenprint: Silent Moon long OP
>glitter print: AP Magic Princess
>Holy Lantern.

It says ドライ/セキユ系, which as far as I can translate means dry cleaning with a petroleum solvent. I'm really confused as to whether it's okay to just send it to a normal dry-cleaners or is this some specialty stuff that I need to hunt a better dry cleaner for.

[Anonymous No.9657633]

>>9657607
Dry cleaners typically use petroleum solvent to clean garments. This is basically just a dry-clean only dress.

[Anonymous No.9657652]

>>9657633

That's really odd then, one of the anons in the lolita general said that Moitie needed some special washing care, not just regular dry-cleaning.

[Anonymous No.9657685]

>>9657607
>>9657633
>>9657652
I received a screen printed moitie dress second hand with some if the screen printed peeling off. Nothing else seemed damage and worn so I assume it was improperly dry cleaned. I've been told certain dry clean chemicals will melt screen prints off so I'd go to a reputable dry cleaner only and let them know the specifications l

[Anonymous No.9657729]

>>9657685
I’ve got a screen printed Moitie dress coming in the mail right now. I’m starting to think the safest bet is spot cleaning the skirt and hand washing the bodice.

[Anonymous No.9657878]

>>9657685

I think you're right, I just did a quick google and ended up on wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cleaning

It lists PCE as the most common and most damaging solvent used for dry-cleaning, and then hydrocarbons (petroleum-based) is used less often because it's milder and less effective. I guess I'll be asking dry cleaners about what solvent they use before I send the dress to them to make sure they're using hydrocarbons, since the entry does say PCE is more commonly used.
Sorry to hear about your dress, though. Hope you at least bought it cheap or got some refund from the seller for the damage.

[Anonymous No.9657879]

>>9652652
Are you washing your dresses in a pillow case? Get laundry bags, they're like a dollar at Daiso.

For your immediate question though, you could just air them out (preferably outside but not in direct sunlight).

>>9652928
Obviously not super helpful now, but wash towels separate from your clothes to prevent this from happening in the future.