As White As White.

Right...

So.

The other day my wedding dress came in the post. I kid you not, it came in a standard size USPS box. Like really thin. So I was spazzing thinking it was going to be a disaster.

I left it in the box, and went to the airport to get my cousin to bring her to my other cousin's house. All in all I had the dress for over 10ish hours before I opened it.

When I did I was none too impressed. Turns out the images that I used to base my purchasing decision had been photoshopped. DAMN IT.

Nothing too over top just lighting and the colour of my dress.

What I thought was going to be a white, crispy, angelic looking, 50 year old vintage amazing find, was actually something that looked its age. The colouring was well off, and non consistent. You could see where the different parts of it had aged quicker. And you could see where it had been in a bag or box with other clothes because there was rust marks from 'another' zip on small areas. It sucked.

So, I was having huge dilemma of whether to spend time trying to get it looking amazing, but run the risk of ruining it and not being able to sell it on, or just selling it on there and then.

I opted for the former.

Washing began on Wednesday. I left it in the bathtub with normal washing powder and some bicarbonate of soda. It was in there for pretty much 12ish hours. The water was a disgusting yellow colour when I took it out. Seriously, it was gross.

I forgot to mention that the dress originally smelled like it was 50 years old too.

So this yellow water was 50 years of musty stench. So gross.

While I was out (for that weird interview) I went looking for some Oxi clean stuff. I was in mini-Sainsbury's in the town and they had vanish oxi action which you could soak clothes in for 1hr if it was colour or 6hrs if it was whites. However it specifically said not to put anything with metal fasteners in it. Hmmmm. Dillema.

The only other product like it was Sainsbury's own 'Oxy action stain remover for whites'. There was no time limit mentioned on this, and nothing about zips. In fact, the product was made in Turkey, and actually just had the bare minimum of instuctions on the back. It seemed totally dodge, but I bought it anyway. Take the risk.

So I came home to the yellow water and my wee brother was black from playing rugby so I had to let him in the shower. I was wondering what to do about the oxi action stuff, whether to use it or just keep on with the washing powder. It was a risk.

The genius that is my wee brother suggested I do fabric test with the ends of the sleeves that I was planning to cut off anyway. How he remembered that I was going to cut the sleeves off I don't know, but the problem was solved.

I put the end of the sleeves in for 2 hours, and then did a secondary material test with the other types of fabric on the dress for 1 hour.

It seemed to be alright, and you could honestly see where the chemical stuff had reacted and had whitened the sleeves. There was a definite line. It was crazy.

I downed tools and went to bed.

Thursday was Oxi action day.

Around 10:30am I put it in the tub with the same level of concentrated oxi action as the night before. One scoop to one bucket.

It was in there for 11 hours. I kept a close eye on it checking every 40-60 minutes. I would always check the sleeves that I had done the night before, because they were two hours ahead, so if they were still in tact and not having an adverse effect then it meant the rest of the dress could keep going for another 2 hours.

As I said before, the brother is a genius.

At around 11pm I took it out the bath tub, made up double strength (2 scoops to one bucket of water) oxi action and threw the dress in the bucket for an hour/90 minutes. Then I rinsed it, and left it in between towels to dry.

This morning I looked at it and it was so white, I couldn't believe it. Seriously... Success!

I'm just after putting it back in the bathtub with washed powder to make sure all the oxi action is officially out of it. Because if you leave any detergent in any fabric it apparently turns it yellow or something. So I thoroughly rinsed, and it's now inside out drying on my mannequin.

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE having a mannequin. Seriously. Best free gift ever. Laura my flatmate used to work in top shop and she got us all mannequins when they were chucking them out.

The mannequin will be going on sale though in the next couple of months. It's just something that's too heavy to keep and immigrate with. Ahhh. Married, wedding immigration. Eep.

So the end of story is that the dress is spectacularly white, it does fit in a tiny box. It's very light, and it needs an awesome petticoat. Hmmm. Need to source one.

I seriously can't believe how white it is. Thank you Sainsbury's.

Now to make it my size :)

it's like a size 12-14 just now... and I'm an 8-10... hmmm.