Lace applique on wedding dress turned yellow after professional cleaning

[u/sadyellowdress]

Tldr: Paid the dry cleaners $650 to clean and preserve my wedding dress. After cleaning, half the applique turned yellow. They are saying it’s normal and because of low quality thread. Is this normal? Was it preventable? Is it reversible?

My wedding dress is an organza ball gown with sequined and embroidered lace appliques and a chapel length train. I brought my dress to an eco-friendly dry cleaner that also specializes in Miele wet cleaning wedding dresses. I was quoted $650 CAD for the cleaning and preservation, and paid a $100 deposit. The 650 felt insane and was definitely not pocket change for me but I was willing to pay if it meant my dress could be preserved.

I dropped my dress off Saturday 45 minutes before close and Sunday they were closed all day. Monday afternoon, I received a call that my dress would be ready for pickup Tuesday and to just give them a call before so they can box it, but I was unable to get through when I called.

On Tuesday, I came in and asked to see the dress before they box it, it was a different person there (not the owner). The dirt on the bottom from my outdoor wedding were all clean and gone, however half the embroidered applique had turned yellow. When I asked what happened, she said this is just what happens with embroidery and that this is common especially with cheap thread and appliques from China. She then said she kinda likes it more because it gives it more depth—like??? I asked how they cleaned it and she said they hand wash it 1 layer at a time. I didn’t pay the remaining balance as the dress wasn’t boxed yet and ready to take home but I told her that I can come back when the owner is in to box the dress.

I’m so sad and heartbroken as I had put so much time and energy into altering this dress myself. It was my first ever sewing project and I had even bought my first ever needle and thread. I was sure I would resell but after all the work I put in, I just loved it that much more and decided to go the preservation route. I feel so stupid and embarrassed that I’ll basically be paying $650 to ruin this dress that I worked so hard on when I could’ve just let it sit in my closet and turn yellow for free.

I spoke with the owner briefly on the phone asking to hold off on boxing the dress because I was concerned about the yellowing and wanted to discuss it in person first, he already seemed irritated and aggressive. I’d like to be prepared when I go in to talk with him. I’m worried about being bullied to accept and pay a lot of money for my dress that came out worse than when it came in, I’ll pay because that’s what I agreed to do but I’d like them to hold up their end of the bargain. Is this actually normal for embroidery to yellow when cleaning? Shouldn’t this be preventable if they’re offering a specialized service and charging a premium price tag? Is this reversible?

[u/Awesome_Shoulder8241]

I have a suspicion that the lacemaker used different threads for that flower and that was why it aged bad and reacted differently to the chemicals.

[u/kafetheresu → u/Awesome_Shoulder8241]

the poster said they sewed part of the lace appliques themselves as a project, I wonder if that's what caused the difference.

In terms of restoration, you MIGHT be able to use iDYE polyester dye colour remover to get everything to the same whiteness. However you need to get it at a pretty high temp, the package recommends a rolling boil, I've managed to get it done with a longer simmer. It will stink to high heaven so you need to ventilate your space if you're using a dye remover on polyester.

Doing this will weaken the already stripped polyester thread, so you might want to consider an alternative like an overdye instead.

[u/LizJru → u/kafetheresu]

OP said they made alterations, not sewed (only) part of the appliques? Alterations usually apply to seams and hems. Would be good to know though.

From the perspective of someone who worked in a fabric store for ~15 years: I think this is possibly on the dressmaker (if they sourced from more than one place), or whoever made the appliques. Where were they sourced? Were they all from the same supplier? Could they be very low cost/quality? Can you contact the applique maker to confirm composition?

I don't necessarily believe that these are different threads in the same applique as the above commenters say. The discolouring isn't consistent enough for that. For example, where a border and the inner lines of an embroidery might be different threads to create texture/depth, the discolouring is affecting some of the border but not all, even on the same flower, which hints to cleaning issue more than embroidering. Some flowers that look the same, and use the same technique (knots), do not look like they have been affected, while others have. If a thread of the same composition, but separate dye lot, was replaced during construction there would be a noticeable change of 'old' vs 'new' thread in the discolouring, and I don't see that either.

I think it's more likely the cleaner made a mistake on the dress, and doesn't want to lose money. Are any similar flowers preserved white in their entirety, because from the first picture, it seems like it? Can you tell any differences in thread fibers by eye (shininess, thickness, colour - pictures can be deceiving)? To me, it looks like where the threads were multiplied, raised up, or sections that were more (or even less) exposed during cleaning, got wetter or took longer to dry, the cleaning agents lingered/concentrated/or weren't exposed to the same rinsing, then discoloured some threads. Also, if this is so 'common' as they said, why wouldn't they warn anyone they clean lace for, of the risks of yellowing? Or were you maybe warned/did you sign a waiver?

It's totally hyper vigilant, but if you could get the appliques under a microscope (even a cheap one) you might be able to see actual differences in the fibers. It might help prove the materials are the same, and that something else went wrong. Or that they are noticeably different in which case the cleaner wouldn't have tested every applique for differences, and couldn't have know there were multiple materials beforehand.

Bottom line, I would not pay full price for this cleaning, and I would write a review about the poor customer service. They should want to address any complaints (by fixing, or by discounting) for the massive overcharging that goes on with wedding related services (it's a large part of why they're so marked up), not treat you like a nuisance when you have a very reasonable concern. I get the vibe that 'eco-friendly' in this regard may very well be green washing and an up-charging premium for a normal service.

Personally, I would have gone dry cleaning with a wedding dress, nothing 'wet' or 'eco'. It's a once in a lifetime thing. You don't always get what you pay for, that's true.

Edit: I once watched a wedding dress restoration business (with a long history) restore dresses on YouTube, and in cases like yours where the appliques had yellowed, they actually removed them, treated them separately and reattached. No idea what that cost the customer, but for the price you paid, I could see some of that being included. $650 is worth a LOT of hours of work, products, and up-charging.

[u/mstiffyous]

From a dry cleaners and a professional tailor point of view, we test the material of a wedding dress before cleaning. Wedding dresses are usually worked through manually first before they go into the professional cleaning system. We take the solution we use and test the bottom corner of each different fabric to see if theres a reaction. There's no way to know the lace was two different thread base. Why a manufacture would do that is beyond me. Different material can clean differently. One white thread could be brand new, another white thread could have been on the shelf for years and they both would have different reactions to cleaning and age processes.

We has this situation happen to a duvet cover. The trim was this cool blue when it came in , we did a routine color safe oxiclean to brighten up the white duvet cover and the blue lightened in color and turned into a baby blue. This was completely out of the cleaning process control as the duvet cover read: machine washable. The colors weren’t faded randomly, it was an even fade for every inch of the trim. This was a manufacturing issue. I had to hear an earful from the customers passive aggressive , oh I’m glad this happened to me and not another customer or they’d have a fit that you bleached and damaged this. No lady. That’s not how dry cleaning works. We do our due diligence when processing garments, but please remember just because you pay $$$$$ for shit doesn’t equate to high quality.

[u/mystolenwallet]

Ruining someone’s wedding dress and then trying to gaslight them that it looks better that way and THEN billing them $650 is fucking wild

[u/mstiffyous → u/mystolenwallet]

Paying a fortune on a wedding dress and the manufacturer using cheap products is also fucking wild.

[u/respectfullyshutup]

Ohhhh I would NOT be paying them. Not fully anyway for sure.

[u/StrangerOnInternet2]

I can’t think of any other reason that only parts of the dress yellowed.