Ballroom dresses are many women’s most precious possessions, and so we’re going to examine the way to keep them that way. Let’s face it, you have taken the trouble to find the ones that really suit you and your style of dancing, so you really owe it to yourself to ensure that they are going still to look their best over the coming years. Take the time and effort and you will be well rewarded.

There are a couple of factors to consider when you are thinking about how best to store your ballroom dresses . To start with, you need to make certain that the color remains as true to the original as it is possible to. Natural light is the enemy in this case. The best thing to do is to get a dark-colored plastic cover which will protect the dress from fading. If you hang up the dress in its cover in a place that has loads of space around it, this will help to prevent creasing of the cloth. Something else to look out for is mildew. This can develop on your dresses and spoil them if they are stored in a damp spot. So, a dry place is ideal and also open the cover to allow some air flow.

Moving on from how to store our ballroom dance dresses, let’s now look at the best way to care for them in terms of keeping them clean and well-presented. The care instructions supplied by the manufacturer or your dress-maker are an excellent place to start.

So, what’s the best way to wash your dresses, assuming that they are suitable to wash? Should you use a washing machine- or hand-wash? Generally-speaking, Lycra and georgette are suitable to be machine-washed as is much practice dancewear, but only if there are no embellishments or other bits that might drop off in the wash. Whichever way you choose to wash your dresses, to avoid shrinkage, it is best to opt for a very cool temperature. No more than 30 degrees Centigrade should be all right.

Pre-wash treatments can be good for heavy staining. You have to be especially watchful if the dress has dark-colored satin bias binding because this can stain the material. So you have to be careful in making sure that the binding and the fabric do not come into contact with each other when still damp. A bit fiddly and time-consuming, but worth the effort.

If you are curious about exactly why you should not launder your ballroom dresses if they have any type of embellishments or trimmings, then consider what can arise. Firstly, glue can dissolve and your stones come way from the dress. What’s more, your stones could damage the material of your gown and at the very least, they could very well become lackluster because of laundering. It is not worth taking the risk.

So what do you do if you cannot wash your ballroom dresses, but you want to freshen them up and maybe get rid of the wrinkles? It might be possible to hand-wash a body suit in its own. In this situation, you must do it with the dress turned inside out and be especially mindful to use cold water and mild detergent only. Rinse out in cold water and drip dry. If you cannot wash the any part of the garment, then you can try hanging it in a steamy place, for example from the shower rail.

Washing ballroom dresses is always fraught with danger. If your garment is particularly heavy when wet, it is probably best to place it over a clothes horse to give it some extra support and help prevent stretching. On the other hand, it could be hung over your bath to drip dry.

Finally, you should be very wary of ironing any part of your ballroom dress. Stretch fabrics should not be ironed at all. Otherwise, use a very cool temperature, especially with synthetic fabrics which can easily burn.

It is always a little worrying when you have invested time and money into buying ballroom dresses , that you may not be able to look after them properly. However, if you take note of the care instructions and the advice given in this article, then you stand a good chance of keeping them looking beautiful for longer.