Are you guilty of this? Do you only wear your delicate clothing pieces for special occasions and hang them back into your closet without ever attempting to wash them? You justify this because you rarely wear it and the label is too intimidating – “hand wash only”.  Either because you lack time or you’re just unsure how to do it properly, you somehow never get around to it. Today, we’ll show you how to clean out your delicate clothing pieces so that you can wear and enjoy them more often.

First of all, check the label and see how it recommends you treat it. If it says “Hand Wash in Cold/Warm Water”, then you can wash it as per the instructions below. But what if it says “Dry Clean Only”? It may not necessarily mean that you absolutely can’t treat it yourself at home. Clothing companies are very prudent in their labelling to limit their liability if anything goes wrong. Use your good judgement. Natural fibres like wool, silk and cashmere are the trickiest to treat yourself because they have a high likelihood of shrinkage. Cottons and polyesters are pretty rough and tumble materials but if they have a dry-clean only label, most likely its due to delicate trimmings on the item or the item is a structured blazer or jacket that may lose its shaped in the home cleaning process. When in doubt, bring it to the Dry Cleaners.  (“How to Tell If Your Dry Clean Item Can Be Hand Washed” is definitely a topic for another blog post. Stay tuned.)

General Rule of Thumb: To prevent shrinkage (especially true for wool and other natural animal fibres), always avoid exposing your pieces to heat sources like your dryer or hot water.

1. Soaking your Item:

Pour a small amount of washing detergent into a tub and add a small amount of hot water to help dilute it. Once you see the detergent is sufficiently diluted, you can start adding enough lukewarm water to cover your clothing item. Put your clothing into the solution and ensure that the entire item is fully submerged. Let it sit for 10-20 minutes, depending on how deep your stains is (if there is any)

2. Removing Stains:

If there are still traces of stains on your item, lightly rub the fabric back and forth to remove it.

3. Rinsing your item:

Rinse the item out thoroughly under warm water until it is free of the detergent solution.

4. Wringing out your item:

Gently ring out the item being careful not to “set in” wrinkles during this process. You can also try turning on the last spin cycle in your washing machine and let your item “spin” for a few seconds. Its a great way to get all the excess water out of your item but remember, just a few seconds is all you need. You don’t want your item to lose its shape in the process. This is also a necessary step for 2 colour tone items that incorporate both light and dark colour panels because you don’t want the dark colour to “seep” into the lighter areas when its wet.

5. Drying your item:

Light delicate fabrics like silk and satin do not need to be wrung out aggressively since they don’t hold much water to begin with and wrinkles tend to set into the fabrics easily. Simply wring them out lightly and hang them directly on hangers to dry.

Heavy weighted sweaters and knit fabrics should be wrung out as much as possible since they take longer to dry and may become smelly if left in a damp state. Do not  hang your sweaters up to dry as water weighs down the yarn and pulls the sweater down into a much longer shape. Lay it flat to dry in a dry heated room for best results. You can also try laying it on top of a dryer thats in use. The heat from the dryer surface will help dry up your sweater without shrinking it.

There you have it, now there is no excuse not to clean your items without stowing them back in the closet

Dressing For the Bride:

- For the bachelorette party, the bride should be dressed in a color that will make her stand out amongst her guests. In keeping with the wedding theme, white is by far the most preferred colour of choice of brides. This is a time to have fun and let loose before the wedding so opt for sexy styles that will have all eyes on you. If you know your event will involve club hopping, drinks and a group of energetic guests who like to have fun, its best to choose a modestly priced dress with a lot of room for movement. This will allow you to move about easily from place to place and you’ll be able to take it all in stride if your fun loving guests accidentally spill their drinks on you. Click here to read how to get red wine out of a white dress.

These contour bra sequin bra dresses are eye catching and give wonderful cleavage even if you’re not well endowed. The body is cut from a stretchy material that shapes to your body and lets you dance and move about comfortably to where ever you need to be.

For low key sit down dinners, you can opt for a classier and elegant option like the gem bust dress and taffeta tube below. Cover up in the early evening with a matching white cardigan to help you stay warm. Wear high heels with hidden platforms because they provide more support for a long night of partying ahead. Keep in your purse a pair of “roll up” ballerina flats that you can easily take out and slip on if needed. After all, who wants to be stumbling home in 6 inch heels?

- Pretty add ons: A veil - you’ll most likely wear a traditional veil on your wedding day so why not use a fun and playful one for the bachelorette party. If you’re in charge of preparing the veil for the bride, you can customize her veil according to the theme or add pretty additions like candys, flowers or even raunchy items like condoms. Just make sure the bride has a sense of humour and doesn’t mind being the center of attention while wearing something like that.

- Pretty add ons: A “Bride” sash – sashes can be created easily with ribbons and pins.

- Pretty add ons: A crown

Dressing For the Party Guest:

The bridal party should decide on a theme that honors the bride and ask their party guests to dress accordingly to the stagette party. You can all choose to wear the bride’s favourite colour. Or you can use themes like

- “Queen Bee” – guests are asked to wear yellow and black clothing, black tape is added onto the outfit to create stripes. Add on antennas and beautiful flower clips to the hair. Make a sign for the bride that says “Our Queen is leaving the Hive”

- “Angels or Devils” – theres always a big debate amongst close friends who’s really the angel or the devil in the group. This is a fun way to spell it out to the crowd. Get Halos for the Angels and have them wear pretty white attire with tags that say “nice” and get Horns for Devils and have them wear sexy red attire with tags that say “naughty”

- Bride’s Favourite “Sports Team”

- “Traffic Light” – Single guests dress in Green, Married guests dress in red, and those who are unsure dress in yellow.

You can also make custom printed T-shirts (available at BangOn(.com) ) for all the guests to create a uniformed look that make lovely keepsakes after the party.

Short Skirts/Shorts

Just because its getting chilly out, you don’t have to pack up you short skirts or shorts just yet. Wear these items with sheer stockings or funky printed tights for a slimming effect, texture and coverage. Choose similar colored boots to complement your skirt and elongate your legs. If you choose a color that is substantially different from your skirt, your legs will appear to be cut into color blocks and thereby shorten your silhouette. The most flattering lengths to wear with short skirts are knee length or mid-calves. It will make provide more coverage to your legs and help balance out your short skirt for a more elegant look.

Pencil Skirts

The most flattering lengths to wear with pencil skirts are mid-calves or ankle boots.  If your pencil skirt is knee length, avoid pairing it with knee high boots as it will cover too much of your entire leg and make your whole lower body look bulky and imbalanced.

Daytime Dresses

Instead of wearing heels and pumps, daytime dresses including wrap, tunic, shift, A-line, and sweater dresses, etc can be paired with knee high, mid calf, or ankle boots in various styles too. Make sure your boot style is similar to your dress. If you are wearing a sexy clubwear dress, then you can pair it with modern patent boots with stilettos heels. Summer dresses with a flared body will look very stylish when worn with rustic cowboy boots and a slouchy fall cardigan.

Leggings

Leggings are great worn underneath long fall tunics because they are soft and comfy and can be tucked easily into boots or UUGS. Make sure you choose a length that is long enough to be tucked into your boot or try leggings with stirrup heels. They hook onto the back of your heel and keep your leggings in place without riding up your leg as you walk.

Skinny Jeans

Any wash of skinny jeans look edgy and trendy with boots. Opt for skinny  jeans that tuck easily into your boots without creating too much bulkiness around your calves.

If you don’t like tucking in your jeans, opt for boot cut jeans. As the name suggests, they have a slight flare at the hem to be wide enough to cover your boots.

Avoid wearing harem pants – baggy pants or cropped pants with boots which will throw off the proportion of your body unless you are blessed with a lean figure.