Finishing Options

FORMAL and FITTED garments are best Drycleaned and Pressed.

TRY ON the article after dyeing. Tell your Drycleaner where extra size is needed. Some garments and body shapes make resizing difficult to guess!

The pictures opposite shows STEAM STRETCHING a dyed woollen suit and a cashmere sweater

A professional Drycleaner is highly skilled and has extensive equipment available to finish your dyed clothing ready to wear.

Machines called ‘formers’ (1) hold jackets and coats whilst steam is pumped through the fabric making it hot and moist. Under these conditions, fabrics ‘relax’ and can be gently pulled into shape. The steam is then vacuumed away leaving the garment increased in size.

Irons are fitted with special covers (2,3 & 4) to prevent scorching and dissipate the steam. Large presses are used to reshape cashmere and wool. Note that ‘patting’ (5) the pile removes creases while maintaining the size.

TRY ON your item after finishing. It may need more stretching. It may need to be worn for some hours to take on the shape of the owner.

ABOUT SILK . . .

Silks can shrink during dyeing and ‘steam stretching’ generally returns the original size. Silk chiffon shrinks as soon as it is in water, but the original size is easily recovered.

Silk’s soft sheen is sometimes lost during dyeing. This leaves the fabric with a ‘sueded’ or ‘snowy’ appearance and colours often look lighter – particularly ‘black’.

SCUFFING due to ‘spot cleaning’ may not be reversible. Once bruised, the fine silk filaments remain damaged and even after applying a ‘silk finish’ the ‘sueded’ area is still visible.

A ‘SILK FINISH’ can be applied by a professional Drycleaner to deepen the colour and return the soft sheen to silk.