Rachel’s Custom Gown Cleaning & Preservation
Breathe new life into your gown.
Your wedding dress deserves specialist care. Not a generic dry cleaner.
At Rachel’s Custom Sewing, every gown is cleaned by hand, layer by layer, with the same attention to detail as when it was created.
Two reasons to care for your gown…
After the celebration of your wedding, your dress deserves the same care it received before the aisle.
Whether you’re planning to resell your dress or preserve it for future generations, each piece is individally hand-cleaned, inspected and treated with the utmost care right here in our Toowoomba studio.
Choose Your Cleaning Experience
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Sample Gown - Refresh before the big day
Ideal For:
Lightly worn gowns with minor marks on hem or train
Includes:
• Gentle pre-treat and hand wash
• Fabric inspection
• Steam press and return in garment bag
$350 -
Standard Gown Clean + Preserve
Keep it for generations to come.
Our archival cleaning process protects delicate fabrics for years to come. Each gown is hand-cleaned (individually, no batch cleaning here unlike dry cleaners), the final rinse is pH tested to ensure no residual cleaning products are present and no alkalinity so ensure long-term fabric care. Then your gown is packed with acid-free tissue in an archival (made in Australia) box.
Includes:
• Full fibre-safe clean, stain removal
• neutralising rinse
• removal of rust-prone metals (hooks, eyes including bustle points)
• tissue layering for long-term storage.
• Deep pre-treat and layer-by-layer cleaning
• Fabric stabilising bath
• Steam press & archival tissue wrap
• Stain removal will get at least 80% of the stains out, for major and perfect stain removal please choose the next tierIdeal for sentimental gowns you want to treasure for a lifetime.
1-2 Layers $395
3-5 Layers $445
6-9 Layers $495
Major staining additional $200
Heavy beading or lace additional $100
Veils and other add ons, see other price boxes. -
Perfection Gown Clean + Preserve
Ideal for:
Perfectionists, heirloom.Includes:
• All Standard Gown Clean inclusions
• Specialist stain treatment to 99% perfection
• Any mending required
• Veil at no extra chargeEssentially this option ensures the closest to perfection possible.
Custom Quote -
Veils
Veil Clean & Preserve $50
Extras:
Rusted comb - clean and recomb + $50
Recomb only +$35
Mending $15 p/area
Individual box $20
We wrap the comb seperately to ensure if there happens to be any rusting in the future nothing is transfered to any part of the veil or the dress it may be resting with. -
Flower Girl Dress
At $70
Get your flower girl dress refreshed and/or preserved at the same time. -
School Formal Dresses
For a limited time:
All formal dresses, regardless of staining, glitter, beads and amount of layers $99.Includes:
Gentle hand cleaning, steam and rebag. -
Gown Clean for Resell
Ideal For:
Reselling
Includes:
• Gentle pre-treat and hand wash
• Fabric inspection and major stain removal
• Steam press and return in garment bag
1-2 Layers $350
3-5 Layers $400
6-9 Layers $450
+ Major staining additional $150
+ Heavy beading or lace additional $70
Additional write my ad option available see below options.
Add Ons - Simply mention in your booking form
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Write my ad
$50
We will write your resell ad for use in still white or marketplace. Complete with size, photos, proof of clean, and (if altered with us) a list of alterations and new applicable sizing.
Included:
Description, Condition, Sizing, and hashtags so your gown reaches its next bride faster. -
Delivery
Toowoomba area pick up and delivery $20 for both, or $10 one way.
Post us your dress in any postal bag and we will post it back in its preservation box. +$50
-
Mending
Minor mending included.
Any major mending we will message you with a photo and a quote. If you know ahead of time of mending required we can quote at drop off.
-
Box Upgrades
Acid-free made in australia cardboard box - included in standard option.
Window pane box (window itself not archival quality) +$30
Museum-grade archival box +$150.
Our boxes are archival, however museum grade takes heirloom preservation to the next level. -
Silk
Yes we can clean silk. It is an extra $100 on top of your chosen tier with no guarantees of full stain removal. What we can guarantee - is full transparency and communication along every step of the cleaning journey.
We hand wash using a gentle silk-safe solution in warm water, and dry flat.
Silk is quite like your hair, it can be wet and cleaned (like shampoo, but for silk) gently, lightly wrung (again, like hair, not a tshirt), patted dry with towels, and laid out to dry.
Stain removal is where the difficulty lies and we can offer no guarantees on what will and won’t come out. We do have more aggressive solutions to aid in removal, however this can degrade the fabric over time and as such isn’t recommended for heirloom storage. -
Cotton Gloves
If you’d like to handle your gown, but fear leaving any marks $20
-
Short video of the process
$75
Includes:
30sec+ Video of the process from intake to clean to steam to boxing. Proof and keepsake in one
The Process
Intake: Photos are taken of your dress, it is tagged with a water-proof number. We add the photos to a shareable google album and send you the link!
Cleaning: Your gown will undergo 2-10 cycles. From the first rinse or soak to the final fabric restorative soak, it all depends on how dirty your dress is and how stubborn the stains are, as to how long we need to soak, and how many processes we need it to go through.
Spot inspection: Every gown is meticulously checked for any remaining stains and spot cleaned with a pH neutral cleaner (if its after the final rinse).
Steam or Press: After your gown is completely dry (this takes 1-5 days depending on weather, humidity and fabric type) we steam or press your entire gown so no heavy wrinkles form which can damage the dress after long periods of time.
Outtake: We take photos again of how the dress looks now, add them to your google album and again send you the link. This means you get to see what the dress looks like, without having to get it out from between the beautifully folded acid-free paper (and we all know how hard it can be putting things back the exact same way).
Boxing: If you’ve chosen boxing, we box up your gown with acid-free tissue lining the box, supporting the bust, covering any metal parts (eg the veil comb or zipper pull) and between every fold.
Text you for pick up: Now it’s all ready for collection!
Handled with the same care as your memories.
Every dress is hand-cleaned using gentle, fibre-safe methods, never harsh dry-cleaning solvents.
Our small team carefully checks every layer, restores fabric balance, and prepares your gown for whatever comes next, whether that’s a new home or its forever box.
