Dresses for Belly Dance

Easy to put on – perfect for quick changes – dresses are an excellent item to have in a belly dancer’s wardrobe. From high glamour to traditional, fanciful to folkloric, a dress can bring high style to the stage. Some designs can even be used in multiple ways from presenting a specific culture, region, or even as a coverup between acts or to wear while announcing at events.  Consider adding a dress to your belly dance wardrobe!

Cleaning Modern Assiut – Assuit

I recently received this message over on FaceBook.
(You can find me here – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Davina-Dawn-Devine/84640936617)

Hi Davina,
I bought a modern Assiut dress from a friend. It smells musty. How do I clean the poor dress?
Thank you!!  Much love,
Parizadah

Rather than limit the response to just my friend or just to FaceBook, here’s my recommendations for cleaning modern Assiut.

Hope this comes in handy for you!

Dawn Devine ~ Davina

Washing Modern Assiut

First – pound down the assiut.  Use a rubber mallet and take a whack and beat the stitches flat.   If it’s used, the former owner may have done this already – but assume she didn’t. If it’s brand new, this is an essential step. I like to use a wooden cutting board for this process.  Don’t pound assiut on an unyielding surface such as concrete or the embroidery wire can cut the fibers.  The goal of this process is to ensure that the stitches are as flat and secure as possible before laundering.  It also makes the dress more comfortable and less scratchy to wear.

Next – place in a mesh lingerie bag and machine wash on delicate setting in warm water.   Use gentle detergent or soap and a good fabric softener after the rince.  Wash ALONE…  many of these dresses don’t have colorfast dye – so – they run or crock.  Remember, modern assiut is made of cotton – so it can take regular old detergent.  Just keep it in a bag so the assiut mesh doesn’t catch on any moving parts and distort the garment.

Finally – Dry flat or hang dry on a very supportive hanger.  Remember the mesh will stretch more when it’s wet.  So laying flat is preferred.  But if you have to hang it – hang it until dry and then fold it up and put it away.  Do not store assiut in a hanging – gravity will pull the mesh out of shape. It’s best to store modern assiut rolled or loosely folded.  Avoid creasing the fabric and potentially damaging the metal stitches.

Remember: For vintage assiut, only hand wash gently in specialty soap such as Eucalan, Forever New, Orvus or Restoration (Restoration is my favorite for vintage textiles) and ALWAYS dry flat.

Special Issues:

Does your dress have coins on it?  No worries – use this same method of laundering. The washing machine will not damage coins, just be sure they are contained in a lingerie bag.

Does it have beads on it?   Test the beads for color fastness.  Some beads run or fade in laundry.  If this is the case, then hand wash it with soap in a basin or tub.

Is it falling apart?   If it has holes in it, or beaded parts that are coming apart – and you want to preserve as much as possible – then hand-wash in a basin or tub and lay flat to dry.  When it’s clean and dry, take the time to mend it before wearing to avoid further damage.

If the dress is still musty after washing?
You can try one of these other techniques:

1 – Put in a plastic box with a highly scented candle or bar of soap – the scent will permeate the fibers.

2 – Lay/hang it in the sun – the sun has amazing cleaning powers.

3 – Hang it near incense and let the sent perfume the dress.  This is an authentic method straight from the Middle East.

4 – Spritz with your signature scent.

5 – Make a sachet of baking soda and place it and the garment in a sealed plastic bag to absorb scent.

6 – Use a de-scenting product such as Fabreze(tm)

7 – Use a antibacterial product such as Endbac2(tm)

8 – Spritz with a solution of half water and half vodka – this is an old theater trick, and acts as an antibacterial.

And remember – these are all instructions for MODERN assiut.  Do not use harsh products or methods on vintage assiut!

Here are links to places where I buy my specialty cleaning products:

Lacis – http://lacis.com/catalog/

Manhattan Wardrobe Supply – http://www.wardrobesupplies.com/store/finewash.html