Class A's that don't look crappy?

November 28, 2006 12:31 AM

My friend (new military wife) needs help with regard to her husband's Class A uniforms and laundry days. There is more inside.

I have tried Google and tag searching, to no avail. My friend is trying to figure out how she she launder and iron her husband's Class A uniforms. Her biggest problem is around "there are patches that have to get sewn on and they
need to be ironed."

Hopefully, someone out there in AskMetafilter-land will be able to help her keep her husband's uniform nice and shiny.

posted by sperose to clothing, beauty, & fashion (11 comments total)

My mother never attempted to clean my father's Class A uniform herself, for exactly some of the reasons you mentioned. I don't think any of my father's coworkers (or their wives) cleaned their uniforms themselves, either... drycleaning is the solution here. Most bases or posts will have a drycleaners with reasonable rates. Also, a lot of private dry cleaners will clean active-duty servicemembers' uniforms for free or at a significant discount.

If her husband is in a position where he's wearing Class As on a daily basis or if dry cleaning is prohibitively expensive for her, she might want to try using a clothes steamer or a clothes press, maybe a product like Dryel. Ironing around the patches, as she seems to realize, is a bad idea.
posted by chickletworks at 12:52 AM on November 28, 2006

It might help if you could give us a base he's assigned to or a general location... for instance across the street from DC's Marine barracks (and thus up the street from the Navy yard) there is a drycleaner that specializes in this stuff with reasonable rates.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:56 AM on November 28, 2006

She needs to be talking to other service wives, about other topics beside just how to handle uniforms. I know many of the social events may seem off-putting, but that social network is very useful -- for shared ideas on everything from finding the best shopping close to base to handling a child's fears for active duty family members. Using MeFi at one remove is not a good substitute!
posted by Idcoytco at 1:21 AM on November 28, 2006

Dress uniforms should always be done by the military dry cleaners. It is not worth the effort and time to clean this when they can be cleaned for about 2 dollars a piece by professionals. They only need to be done every once in awhile anyways. And if they screw it up, they pay to fix it. And she will never have to worry about being the one to blame for screwing up a very expensive uniform.

When she picks them up at the dry cleaners make sure that she throughly inspects the garments to ensure that they did no damage. Don't let them try to hurry her to look thru them and accept them - be exacting. Once she walks out that door with a screwed up garment she is SOL.

So dryclean, but always be on the watch for damage.
posted by bigmusic at 1:58 AM on November 28, 2006

Seconding the points made above:
a) that this is the ideal topic to be discussed with other army wives (in itself it can be an icebreaker, really).
b) that you dryclean it, and nobody washes them themselves, from experience with my ex. I never even touched his normal uniform, because he had spent weeks in basic training actually learning how to wash and iron it perfectly, and my sloppy techniques weren't good enough.
posted by jacalata at 4:12 AM on November 28, 2006

I'm pretty sure my father always had his uniforms dry cleaned, just to ditto all above.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:33 AM on November 28, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Military officer here...

Nobody launders their Class A's themselves. Drycleaning is the way to go here. Class B/ACU wash at home (although some of my colleagues dryclean their Class B's too).
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 4:37 AM on November 28, 2006

Ex-military here. I too say pay the couple dollars for the on-base drycleaning for dress/inspection uniforms, all others can be done at home.
posted by whoda at 6:01 AM on November 28, 2006

My Dad's dress uniforms went to the base cleaners, too. They can also help with patches, alterations, etc, etc. They specialize in doing these clothes, after all.

Note that it shouldn't be necessary to clean them too frequently unless they get soiled. Treat them like a good suit -- this recent post might help.
posted by Robert Angelo at 6:43 AM on November 28, 2006

When I was in the AF, the service dress was always a dry cleaner / tailoring item. I never messed around with that considering the functions & events I used it at.
posted by hodyoaten at 7:58 AM on November 28, 2006

I have passed on the dry cleaning advice (plus the being sociable with other wives too) to her.

Thanks y'all. :)
posted by sperose at 11:43 PM on November 28, 2006