Over time, all fabrics do become old, brittle, and weak. A certain amount of mechanical action must be applied to a garment to properly clean it. So, it is not uncommon for garments to tear during the cleaning process. It could be a coincidence that three of your garments ripped during cleaning, all around the same time, however, I find that unlikely. It appears that your cleaner may be using “old fabric” as an excuse to avoid responsibility for damaging your garments. However, without seeing the garments, its very difficult for me to say so with any level of certainty.

In general, if the fabric is indeed so brittle and dry rotted that cleaning it will cause damage, then simply tugging on the fabric by hand in opposite directions should also cause the fabric to rip. I recommend trying to rip the fabric by hand. If you can’t rip the fabric, then your garments should have withstood the cleaning process. If so, you should return the garments to the cleaner and show them that the fabric is not so weak that it shouldn’t have survived the cleaning process. They should be willing to reimburse you for the damage.

Thank you so much for the speedy reply. The way you explained the process makes a lot of sense.

When I picked up the shirts in question after being redone ( they did offer to remove the starch “build up” at no cost ) ,a different counter person handled the transaction. She happened to remark to me that it took three washes to remove the starch buildup, and proceeded to explain that using heavy starch on the shirts causes the fabric to break down much quicker. As she was telling me this, I was remembering reading something very similar on your site, so I trusted her knowledge. Apparently, she wasn’t aware of what the previous tech told me, as she assumed I always had the shirts finished with heavy starch. She did apologize profusely after hearing the excuse I had been told, and now all is well in my world of dry cleaning!

Again, thank you so much for your reply and explanation. This is a great service you are providing, and I will be sure to recommend you to anyone who needs timely and honest answers to their drama filled dry cleaning dilemmas!

Sincerely,
Samantha

This is a GREAT question!

Starch does build up slowly in shirts over time with repeated applications. However, you are correct that you shouldn’t see a dramatic jump from light starch to heavy starch in just one cleaning cycle.

The cleaner’s advice to occasionally send in your shirts for “no starch” is a clue as to what may have happened. If you take his advice without telling him what you are doing, he will end up mixing your heavy starch shirts into his no starch loads. If the cleaner is washing shirts that have heavy starch build up on them with the light starch or no starch shirts, he is creating the problem. The shirts with too much starch in them will act as “starch pills” in the load. The starch will transfer from the heavy starched shirts into the water and then transfer from the water onto all the other shirts in the load. Therefore, shirts that have heavy starch build up should always be cleaned by themselves, so they will not contaminate other shirts in the load.

My advice to customers who want to reduce starch build up is to wash their shirts at home two or three times.

So an dry cleaning an item cause a fabric to wear down and tear in a single spot only?

On linens that issue with that is the time it take to press. Linens are very tricky to press you do 1 side and the other side gets messed up. I know this 1st hand since i have pressed a few in my time. thought i would mention that as well along with Angie.

Since your dress has been cleaned safely before, its most likely not a manufacturing defect. The cleaner may have used a cleaning method different from the one recommended by the care label. I recommend sending the dress back to your daughter and have her show the dress to the owner of the dry cleaner. He may not be aware of the damage. Sometimes dry cleaning plant employees will make mistakes that they do not share with their boss. The owner should be willing to reimburse you for this damage.

By slip covers, I assume you mean the cushion covers, if not I apologize. Even though many couch cushion covers have zippers on them, they are typically not designed to be removed and cleaned. The zippers are there as a manufacturering aid only. It makes them much easier to assemble. The FTC requires servicable textiles to have a care label attached. Do your covers have a care label on them? If not, then they were not supposed to be removed for cleaning. Did the cleaner require you to sign a release before cleaning the cushion covers? For risky items like these that are not typically cleaned often, getting a release signed from the customer is a must. I recommend accepting the cleaners offer to pay for half the replacement cost OR you could suggest accepting a store credit for the full replacement cost.