Clothing Care

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I have a problem I need some help with, but first here's a nice little guide to basic Lolita clothing care.

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>>9092022

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Okay, so I have a problem I can't seem to find a solution to. As of right now, I don't wear Lolita very often, maybe once a month, so my clothes don't get a lot of wear. I'm also very mindful to keep my clothes clean and don't wear them anywhere that may end up getting them dirty or smelly (around smokers, or at restaurants). I always wear bloomers and a blouse, so my skirts and JSKs can be worn a couple times before I wash them since they don't touch my skin.

I washed two of my skirts, and everything was fine until they started to dry, when suddenly I noticed they smell. I have no idea what the smell is, I'm not sure if our humidity brought it out or what, but they smell dirty and gross. I can't figure out how to get it out. I wash all my clothes with free and clear detergent, and I hand wash and air dry all my Lolita stuff. Baking soda didn't do anything. Someone told me to put them in the freezer, which worked about as well as I figured it would. I read borax can get odors out of clothes, but I have no idea if that's safe to use on my Lolita stuff or what exactly it does.

So, any Lolita laundry experts that have advice?

>>9092038

If you have a container and lid big enough for your piece/s, cover the bottom of the container with baking soda. Then place some kind of filter over it so your clothes do not touch the baking soda. Think things like plushie stuffing, just something that can allow for some air circulation in the container. Close it, and let it sit for a week.

NOTE: I have never attempted this with clothes, but I have used this for some second hand plushies that reeked of cat piss and it worked wonders. I also don't know what having multiple pieces in one box at a time will do to the wait time/effectiveness. Please correct me if this would be bad for the clothes!

>>9092038
Wash it again and hang it outside to dry? This happens to my clothes when they don't dry out very well but iutside dried clothes always smell supet fresh

>>9092038

A lot of the issues with clothing smell is that we can't really identify what it's from, especially if it's an issue described in words over the internet.

If it's something caused by a bacteria or mold, then the freezing that you described will kill them off, which is why it gets rid of the smell. Alcohol (vodka or rubbing alcohol) is also a good way to kill them off. Another is to soak it in some vinegar (not neat, dilute it in some water). Heat, such as from exposure to the sun, will also kill off a lot of different molds and bacteria, which is why drying them in the sun will also work (however, direct sunlight will fade your clothes. Drying them in the dryer will melt tulle lace and polyester).

If it's a smell from caked up body sweat that never got washed out properly, then you need hot water (as hot as possible) to dissolve that and get rid of it. I've found that switching to dishwashing liquid and soaking in vinegar also helps, the dishwashing liquid to break down fat and oil, and the vinegar because body oils do tend to attract bacteria/mold of some sort. Be careful with the dishwashing liquids though, some of them have a bleaching/whitening agent in them.

A third possible cause is from an anon who said they don't wash their clothes often, so the deodorant built up in their clothes and interacts with their body oils. As soon as that stuff touched water it apparently stank up the room. I'm not really sure what the solution to that is, though, other than to wash your clothes more often to avoid any kind of body oil/deodorant build up.

>>9092089
I'm going to wash them again, I'm going to try soaking the clothes for a while. I'm not sure if the smell is from the clothes not drying right or not because, to me, it isn't really that musty laundry smell. I didn't dry the clothes outside, so maybe that would help, but in the past I've always found clothes I put outside to dry to have a very unpleasant smell too. Maybe that is related to the humidity. I might try tumbling in the dryer on the air only setting. If humidity is the problem, that's probably the only way to dry them that will ensure the humidity level stays down.

>>9092088
I've never found baking soda to work very well, but if I rewash everything and the smell still doesn't come out I'll be resorting to trying your method.

>>9092101
I have a problem with the deodorant/smell problem in my t-shirts (I have crappy body chemistry and it's frustraiting) but not my Lolita stuff. The smell is only in two of my skirts, so it definitely isn't that. I also doubt its from sweat since I wear bloomers, so not much sweat would have touched them. HOWEVER, both skirts are second hand, and perhaps the original owners got them sweaty and the current humid weather brought the smells back out or something. Which is kinda gross if that's the case.

But, yeah, I know my over-the-internet descriptions aren't very useful. I'm still trying to figure out what the smell might be from. I may give the dishwashing liquid thing a try, thanks for the suggestions!

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Steamer anons, is it worth it? I asked this a few rori generals back aswell but it saged right after. Is it better than ironing? Is it faster or more comfortable? Other personal pros and cons?

I've been looking at the travel sized Jiffy after reading scarce reviews online. Is it still worth it without investing a huge ton of money?

>>9092119
I can't help you much, but I got a travel steamer just to try one, and find it doesn't work very well. I've never used a regular steamer, so It may be one of those things where the regular steamers work great but travel ones don't.

>>9092119
I got a cheap large steamer and it works decently well if you want to work on large areas that are slightly wrinkled quickly. It's pretty much worthless for deep wrinkles or if you're working on small details like ruffles or pintucks. Most of the the I just use my iron.

>>9092038
I would translate the cleaning label and probably take them to the dry cleaners, explaining the problem. I wash my cottons and cotton blends but use the professional cleaners for synthetics.

How do you gulls clean gold prints? I'm so terrified of melting it off but I can't keep wearing it without cleaning. Pic related, the dress I need to clean.

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>>9092215
Dropped pic, sorry. Also is it safe to steam or iron the gold prints? I miss when dresses were less delicate ...

>>9092221
Spot test a section of the print that normally gets covered by a bow to see if the gold melts/runs/whatever. Usually ironing/steaming is fine if you do it on a low setting on the back of the fabric

So I successfully machine washed some of my dresses that didn't have prints but they are a little wrinkled after letting them air dry - not much, but enough that I want to make sure no one sees the wrinkles in pictures.

I've heard to use a piece of cloth inbetween thee iron and the dress when you iron them?
I've only ever iron normie clothes before this so I have no idea what I'm doing and I would put the iron on the shirt and it was fine... but I don't want to melt my dresses or something.

>>9092283
Yes. Using a pressing cloth can help prevent ironing marks and help you not get near and melt the lace. Many fabrics need at least a cotton blend setting but that is hot enough to melt chemical lace on lolita

>>9092121
>>9092145
I see, thank you anons! The only situation I've seen a large steamer was in a clothing store, but it makes sense there as the clothes don't arrive wash wrinkled. So it made me go kira kira in hopes of it being an easy fix it all. I guess I'll just upgrade my ironing game then!

My Infanta Gold Theme Park JSK doesn't have a care tag at all, is this normal for Taobao brands?

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I bought a skirt from To Alice a long time ago and never wore it. I finally had an outfit in mind for it, but then I noticed that it had an ironing "stain" of melted fiber smack in the front of the skirt (I thought it was glue at first, until I saw the shape of the burn).

It's too late to contact the store about it, so is there anything I can do to make the burn less shiny? I looked online and it wasn't very promising. I think the fabric is polyester or a poly-cotton blend.

OP here. Just wanted to say that I got the smell out of my stuff. I'm pretty sure the smell was caused by a combo of humidity, sweat buildup/not being completely washed out, and poor air circulation. I can't really do much about it because it's pretty out of my control, but this is the first time I've had a problem like this so I guess that's a good sign that it's not something I should have to worry about very often.

>>9092119
I think it's well worth it. For deep wrinkles on cotton you'll still want an iron, but I wear a lot of chiffon and cutsews, and it's wonderfully fast and easy for those

A few threads back I asked about using oxiclean on glitter prints, it took me a while to get around to it but it worked great! I soaked it about 4 hours, and didn't lose any glitter. Some of the black dye bled into the water, but it didn't seem to damage the print or really look any more faded afterwords.

I wore a white chiffon blouse out right after receiving it and when I took it off I noticed huge sweat stains. The weather was pretty hot but I used deodorant and didn't feel that sweaty. Am I just a disgusting person? How do I prevent this in the future?

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>>9092287
Thank you so much!

>>9093487
In case this ends up being a problem for anybody else, I discovered what the issue is.

One of my skirts has a built-in tulle petticoat. And for some reason, it stinks. It was fine until the water hit it, and then for some reason that brought the smell out. This seems to be a common issue with tulle. I've been airing it out all day and it still has the smell.

>>9092287
I got most of the wrinkles out of an AP blouse but then I tried to iron my bodyline skirt and one of the seams ripped open and not even the seam itself ripped, but the fabric near the seam? I have sewn it back but this is so fucking disappointing.
Its the only thing I can wear to my upcoming meet too.

In October I'll be on a 3 week vacation in the US and will have to rely on laundromats to wash my clothes. I'm planning on bringing at least 3 full coords but am concerned about how safe washing and drying them will be.

Doe anyone have any hints or tips on how to keep my frills safe?

>>9094484
Garment bags and lingerie bags for washing. I wouldn't risk drying in a dryer though.

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>>9094156
Everyone sweats anon and at this time of year it's pretty gross (and normal). There are sweat guards you could use which act as a barrier.

>>9095152
These will show badly in a white chiffon blouse. Better to wear cotton blouse in summer and save chiffon for cooler or indoor meets. Thin polyester chiffon is hotter than a thicker cotton because it does not breathe.

>>9094156
Does your deodorant also contain antiperspirant? If not, it needs to. If it already does, you may need a stronger one sometimes, applied starting a few days before a meet.

Anyone know a way to fix floppy bonnets, I have quite a few that have drooped in the centre. Has anyone tried spray liquid starch?

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Bought an older AP OP secondhand, it had mystery brown stains on the collar. Thankfully the collar is white so I'm trying bleach pen. I wish I knew what type of stains they were (blood, oil, pigment, etc) so I could more efficiently clean it

>>9094155

This is incredibly helpful, thanks!

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I got the Wendy OP from AATP (pic related) and I have no idea how to wash it. It's 100% polyester butcher (ポリエステルブッチャー) and doesn't feel super delicate like chiffon. The tag says dry-clean only, but I've machine washed another 100% polyester AATP dress and cotton BABY dresses with no issue before. I can't find any info on taking care of polyester butcher in English (keeps bringing up polyester butcher coats). Any tips?

>>9097920
Try looking at care tips for butcher cloth or butcher linens.

Anyone know if AP's chiffon prints are safe to throw in the wash in a garment bag (ie misty sky, MCD)?

>>9098200

Yes, they generally are.

Though I should add, if the label clearly says "dry-clean" and we throw it in the washing machine anyway, that's a risk we're taking.

>>9097712
Update: bleach pen didn't do anything but hydrogen peroxide and a q-tip did. Highly recommended for stains on white fabric

Anyone know how to wash non-coloursafe prints? Red print on a light background specifically. Tried taking a dress to the dry cleaner today and they couldn't guarantee the print would come out okay..

how to get cumstains out of velveteen?

>>9098447
Bait.

So I have an ivory chiffon moitie blouse I got secondhand and it has a couple stains. One is red (lipstick?) on the bust seam, the others are most likely foundation on the inside of the collar. Best way to go about removing them? I'm debating just handing it off to a dry cleaner, since it's a CC buy and probably needs it.

I got a AP old school skirt in pink, i notice a brown stain. So i contact the seller and she explain me that it was a soda stain. I thought that only with dissolving liquid soap in warm water and soaked for 20min will be ok. The stain still visible.
I need that stain to be disappear.

>>9100085
Makeup typically oil based (especially lipstick), I would look for tutorials on how to remove that
http://stylecaster.com/beauty/how-to-remove-makeup-stains-from-clothing/
For the foundation, I'd recommend applying hydrogen peroxide with a q-tip or something else small like the anon further up thread did