Ruining vintage stuff :(

[Miss Sis]

I wrecked original British WW2 RAF tropical trousers and jacket (a set belonging to the same person) just by washing them.

They smelt terrible so I threw them into the bath to soak in tepid water. Next day they had tiny white spots all over them. It wasn't really my fault - it turns out the dye used in these fabrics is really unstable. Only thing that's ever happened to vintage stuff I've cleaned but I felt really bad for my BF who'd just bought them.

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

I've got yellow stains on a 1900-1910s white, knit shawl that my husband's paternal grandmother "knotted"croched(sp?) herself.

I've soaked lace curtains in hot water and dissolved denture tablets- worked like charm. Might be worth a shot here. I got the idea from watching a British show called How Clean is your House?; they do a lot of cleaning using alternative methods.

 

[RedHotRidinHood]

I've soaked lace curtains in hot water and dissolved denture tablets- worked like charm. Might be worth a shot here. I got the idea from watching a British show called How Clean is your House?; they do a lot of cleaning using alternative methods.

Oh yes! Denture tablets are also good for cleaning hard water deposits off the inside of glassware and pottery.

Feraud-how did you use the Oxy on the ties? Were they rayon, like the 40s rayon ones? What was the Oxy-to-water ratio?

KittyT-I feel your pain. I have ruined things by soaking them with others that were wrong. Not clothes so much as linens that I dearly loved. Most of the time the Carbona products work for me, but it is always a crap shoot!

 

[Foofoogal]

When I first started collecting dolls years ago I read a doll repair book. No kidding. It said to clean a composition doll with soap and water. NOT... It immediately cracked or crazed her all over. I was so mad. I figured it may of been a dealer trying to sell compo dolls and wiping out all the competition.
Never, ever put a drop of water near a composition doll.

 

[KittyT]

KittyT-I feel your pain. I have ruined things by soaking them with others that were wrong. Not clothes so much as linens that I dearly loved. Most of the time the Carbona products work for me, but it is always a crap shoot!

Is the Carbona dye remover safe to use on colored items? Or just whites?

 

[RedHotRidinHood]

Is the Carbona dye remover safe to use on colored items? Or just whites?

I have used it on 1940s and 50s multi-colored tablecloths with no problem-it took out ONLY the dye that had recently transferred from something else. Don't ask me how it works...just that it does! lol I was afraid that it would ruin the whole tablecloth, but it saved a really rare beauty that I have not been able to let go of yet.....

 

[RedHotRidinHood]

When I first started collecting dolls years ago I read a doll repair book. No kidding. It said to clean a composition doll with soap and water. NOT... It immediately cracked or crazed her all over. I was so mad. I figured it may of been a dealer trying to sell compo dolls and wiping out all the competition.
Never, ever put a drop of water near a composition doll.

I have heard that the old Glass Wax cleaning compound is fabulous for compo dolls. Is this true? I see that it used to go on eBay for stupid amounts of money now that they don't make it anymore!

I love Glass Wax, and have the Christmas stencils that they used to sell with it. The stuff cleans glass like no other. I was mad when I found out they don't make it anymore. I used some of my GW hoard to do Christmas images(using the old stencils!) on the windows last year, and they were COOL!!!

 

[Foofoogal]

Is this true?
--------
sorry but I have no idea. I sold this one compo doll last year to someone who knew compo dolls more than me. She had a full trousseau and was a bride doll so still worth selling. Crazing in compo is very common really.
Some don't mind and some do.

 

[Miss 1929]

More ignorance than carelessness...

I thought there would be enough vintage to last forever...
In my punk era, I took a pair of 1940s navy suede pumps with red kid piping that fit me perfectly and had a matching handbag...
and I spraypainted them fluorescent orange and green for a costume.
I could just cry...

 

[RedHotRidinHood]

I thought there would be enough vintage to last forever...
In my punk era, I took a pair of 1940s navy suede pumps with red kid piping that fit me perfectly and had a matching handbag...
and I spraypainted them fluorescent orange and green for a costume.
I could just cry...

Oh dear. I think you had better go to church and pray for your soul for that one...lol (Just kidding!!!)

 

[Kassia]

Do you have an item that you've ruined? Maybe a dress you ripped when you were out dancing? An item that shrunk or disintegrated when you washed it? Something that got a careless cigarette burn in it? Something you stained during that nice dinner?

I just got to thinking about this - I soaked a bunch of vintage and non-vintage items in Oxyclean last night, and some of the dye bled out of an orange cotton shirtdress. The dye deposited on some items - one of my favorite white shirts, a pair of pink pedal pushers (both not vintage, fortunately, but I'm still gutted). There's one more vintage dress I have yet to inspect and I'm terrified to take a look. I'm never going to forgive myself if I ruined it. It's a lesson learned the hard way - soak like colors only.


Some lessons are learned the hard way

A quick tip for bleeding dyes...
Wash the item in blue dawn dishsoap.. I do it all the time and it works like a charm... Not sure why but it sure does the trick...

 

[KittyT]

A quick tip for bleeding dyes...
Wash the item in blue dawn dishsoap.. I do it all the time and it works like a charm... Not sure why but it sure does the trick...

Do you boil it or anything? Or just a handwash in the sink? Is it safe for non-colorfast fabrics?

I tried the dye remover last night. Worked well on the white tshirt but completely stripped the dye out of my pink pedal pushers without really removing any of the orange dye that had bled into them. They're a cotton/spandex mix so I imagine they won't redye well, but maybe I'll try dying them black, just for the hell of it.

I have yet to try to save the vintage dresses. The dye remover seemed to be pretty rough and I'm so scared of ruining them. I'd love to try something gentler first.

 

[Kassia]

Do you boil it or anything? Or just a handwash in the sink? Is it safe for non-colorfast fabrics?

gentler first.

I usually wash things in the washing machine but i can't see that it wouldn't work if you hand wash it too..
It works like a charm on items, like quilts and tea towels, where the red dye has run into the white.. It sets the dye and prevents it from running anymore.. It's a trick i learned from a dyer...

 

[pigeon toe]

I haven't really ruined anything to my knowledge, but I think that's because I don't really wash much of my vintage! Oops, now you know my dirty secret! I either take it to the cleaners if it looks dingy (a sin, I know, but my mother swears by one cleaner in particular), or do nothing at all if it looks clean. I do wash my vintage slips, stockings and tap pants, though.

In spite of my good luck, I've definitely have had a few moments where I've gotten stuck in a dress (either my own or in a vintage store's dressing room) and it feels like the world is gonna end. I have had moments where I've felt like I've had to choose to either dislocate my shoulder or bust the seams of a dress. Luckily I've somehow managed to wiggle my way out of vintage unscathed (same for the dress), but there have been some close calls.

 

[KittyT]

I usually wash things in the washing machine but i can't see that it wouldn't work if you hand wash it too..
It works like a charm on items, like quilts and tea towels, where the red dye has run into the white.. It sets the dye and prevents it from running anymore.. It's a trick i learned from a dyer...

Oh, you mean it's to keep things from running, not to remove dyes that have run into other clothes?

This can also be done with salt.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

It's not really ruining, but since the only vintage things I will wear are deadstock, I always feel badly removing them from their original packaging.

 

[John in Covina]

Sometimes a repair or "fix" winds up being counter-intuative.

In my youth, the rush to fix things has lead to this sequence many times:

"All you gotta do is this!" Pause - Gasp - Horror!:eusa_doh:

"You Ruined It!"

I have a stone age flint skinning tool from Denmark, my Grandmother found it in her backyard. It looks like a small hatchet head, beautifully made and was polished smooth. As a kid, I played with it so it is scratched up now.

The number of good knives I have broken trying to use them as throwing knives.

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

It's not really ruining, but since the only vintage things I will wear are deadstock, I always feel badly removing them from their original packaging.

I have a similar situation with the sewing notions I buy (buttons, zippers, rickrack, trim, etc.). I really, really hate to damage the packaging! I try to open things as carefully as possible, if I must.

I don't *think* I've ruined anything vintage. I'm usually paranoid about damaging something!

 

[Mike in Seattle]

My ruined vintage item was a Sheaffer fountain pen. It was part of a pen and pencil set that my dad had bought when he got back from WWII. He gave it to me when I was 16 or 17, when he felt I was old enough to take care of something of value. I used it for three or four years when the accident happened. I'd done a load of my laundry and took the load and put it in the dryer. The washer was in the kitchen, dryer was in the detached garage. The idea on that was in Long Beach, CA when the house was built in 1956 was - who needs a clothes dryer when you have a retractible six-rope clothesline between the back door and garage?

I didn't realize when I bent over that the pen slid out of my shirt pocket and into the clothes I was stuffing in the dryer. I started the dryer and headed back inside. It was a load of towels & jeans, so I set the timer for a long run to dry the heavy material, and I couldn't hear the soon-to-begin clunking of the non-fabric item in the dryer from my room.

Several hours later I went out to get the clothes. Brown ink spots all over everything. Soaking everything for a couple hours with some bleach got rid of the spots. But the pen was a total loss. The top had come off, and the whole nib, snorkel & even the threads for screwing the cap on were all chewed up and bent.

I've been keeping my eye out from time to time for the last 25 or so years for the replacement. I've come close a couple times. Finding that model in extra fine is sort of a needle in a haystack.

 

[Matt Deckard]

It's when you are standing next to a woman wearing an original beaded 20's dress that looks as though it were just made and taken off the hangar, and in your hand is a cup of coffee that is full to the brim and suddenly she's crying and the cup I empty.