Q&A and Useful Industry Information

Manufacturers often add trim materials to garments to enhance their appearance. Such items may include buttons, beads, appliques, or leather patches. Decorative buttons are one of the more popular tri...

Caption: Accidental contact with an oxidizing bleach caused the color loss spots on the front of this shirt. Q: After drycleaning a light blue blouse I noticed small areas of color loss on the l...

Q: My spotter is having a terrible time with color loss on the natural and khaki color fabrics. She uses oily type paint remover and flushes it out before drycleaning, but a faint color loss appear...

Q: I washed some denim jeans and noticed lighter streaks throughout them. What can I do to prevent this problem? A: Color loss streaks of this type may result from a few sources. In some cases, t...

Q: My customer complained that the back of her jacket is discolored when she goes outside. What causes this color variance? A: In some cases, facing materials may also be used on the back panels....

Q: What is causing the discoloration on this drapery panel? A: This is a drapery lining fabric with a coating applied to achieve room-darkening qualities by blocking out light. The black substan...

Leather trim may be used on a variety of garments. In many cases, the leather trim can bleed after cleaning. Therefore, it is very important to check the care label before cleaning. Oils and dyes u...

Q: I have a striped shirt that has dye bleeding in one small area on the back. I did not see any problem with the shirt until after it was washed. What could have caused this dye disturbance in suc...

When garments do not have a care label, you must determine the safest method of cleaning for the garment. Following are a few quick tests you can perform to determine the cleanability of a garment. ...

With today’s wide variety of colors and trims, it is important to test for colorfastness and cleanability before processing garments. A simple test can be done for colorfastness by wetting an unexpose...

Many times garments contain dyes that are completely colorfast to drycleaning solvents and to water. However, a component of the dye can be disturbed and/or removed by the use of moisture pre-spotters...

Q: I have a suit that no longer matches after drycleaning all the pieces in the same load. How can this be possible? A: Many times, matching pieces of an outfit are actually sold as separates. Yo...

Q: Sometimes my customers return white garments and say they are now yellow or not as white as they were before cleaning. I do not believe it is redeposition, since I maintain my solvent carefully....