TOP COATS

Designers continually search to find different effects and styles and this often involves using the latest developments in fabrics and finishes. The result can bring fresh problems for cleaners.

Unfortunately these changes are not accompanied by improvements in labelling. Cleaners should not rely wholly on the care label, especially if their experience tells them that a garment might prove difficult. It is often the hidden components that give the most problems. Interlinings may shrink excessively. Padded garments may fail to dry properly because the outer fabric is impermeable to the drycleaning solvent, which is now trapped inside the garment and will not evaporate quickly during drying.

More than ever, drycleaners need to use their skills, especially when removing collar grime, or when setting drying temperatures to avoid damaging modacrylic fur linings.

Pressing can still cause problems. Even experience pressers may make a mistake that ruins a perfectly cleaned garment.

Cleaner leaves his mark

Fault: This fur lined coat had been perfectly cleaned and needed very little pressing. The presser steamed the first panel but then put a hand on the steamed fur and left a handprint that could not be removed.

Cause: The jacket’s care label showed that the fur lining was a mixture of acrylic and modacrylic. The cleaner had lowered the thermostat setting for the outlet air temperature during tumble drying to comply with the precautionary bar beneath the P in a circle symbol on the label, so the lining was not damaged in the machine. However, steaming the panel on the press softened both the acrylic and modacrylic fibre. As soon as the presser’s hand touched the fabric it flattened the softened fur, with the result seen here.

Responsibility: This garment had both the correct fibre content information and the correct care label. The cleaner is to blame for marking the garment by touching the softened fur.

Rectification: Unfortunately this mistake cannot be corrected.

Padded jacket needs long careful drying

Fault: After removing the fur collar to clean by hand, the cleaner processed this coat on a delicate cycle. It came out of the machine clean but had hard balls of feathers in every panel and looked lumpy.

Cause: This polyurethane coated fabric is virtually impermeable to both solvent liquid and solvent vapour. The feather filling had eventually become wet during the solvent wash but drying will take a very long time and it is best to control the drying manually. This is because the solvent is released so slowly from inside the feather-filled panels that the automatic sensor that measures the rate of solvent recovery from the drying air stream will “think” the garment is dry long before it has dried completely.

Responsibility: This garment requires a non-standard drycleaning process, because of the slowness of drying. A professional cleaner should be able to handle the garment correctly. The cleaner should therefore take responsibility as this slow drying requirement is not a garment fault.

Rectification: The garment should be re-cleaned and re-dried following the advice given.

Belt goes out of shape during cleaning

Fault: This belt was drycleaned in perc on a delicate cycle as indicated by the label but it was rippled and distorted when it came out of the machine.

Cause: The manufacturer has stiffened the belt with a fabric that cannot withstand the cleaning method shown on the label. The outer fabric is fine but if a garment is labelled as drycleanable all the components used must be able to withstand a full drycleaning process in the solvents shown on the label.

Responsibility: The manufacturer should take the blame here. The cleaner followed the care label and the result was inevitable.

Rectification: A skilled dressmaker might be able to re-make the belt with a new interlining but there is nothing the cleaner can do.

Collar fleece stays grimy after drycleaning

Fault: A coat that was lined with natural fleece carried the circle P symbol without any bar. However, the cleaner used a delicate process and although this produced a good result on most of the coat, the collar fold still had dark lines of ingrained soiling.

Cause: There is only one way to soften collar grime on a sheepskin fleece. First, pre-brush it very carefully with neat pre-treatment detergent. Then clean it on a thorough two-bath process in perc to remove all the dirt. The pre-treatment detergent should not be diluted as this increases the risk of matting and felting. Use the strongest solvent available in the two-bath process as it is essential to remove all the grime first time. Any soiling that remains will re-deposit locally and become virtually impossible to remove by re-cleaning.

Responsibility: The cleaner is probably to blame here because he cleaned the garment without any pre-brushing and on a delicate cycle rather than a normal one.

Rectification: None – recleaning is unlikely to work.