AUTHOR: Cyril Bladier TITLE: Caring For Your Costume DATE: 6:09:00 PM ----- BODY:
Costumes can be quite costly these days. This means you should try to make them last as long as possible.  Taking care of your costume will help keep your costume looking fantastic for years and years.  My roman soldier armor and costume will be the reference point for the next 6 paragraphs on proper costume care.

Firstly, take a look at how you wash your costume after you use it. You will want to remove all dirt and sweat so that your costume will be ready for wear the next time you need it.  Here are some general tips to use when cleaning the various types of costumes you might own.

Cloth cleaning should only be done after you read the tag and determine the best way to do this.  Many costumes are dry clean only and cannot be placed in a washer. Others may be washed but not dried, and for some it may not matter at all.

Washing down a metallic costume will be more intense than placing a cloth costume in the washing machine.  My roman soldier armor has many pieces of metal and must be cleaned with care.  Metal that is not created from stainless steal or some other rust proof material will rust if it is not kept dry.  What I do when cleaning the metal is to use a wet paper towel to scrub the metal and then dry it off with a dry paper town.  This ensures that the metal stays in the best condition it can be in.

You will find that your costume will eventually need to be repaired.  Materials made from cloth should be fixed at a professional shop.  My strategy is to find an exact thread match to bring to my local seamstress.  I've found that she does not always use the exact same color thread when I do not do this.

Repairing parts of the costume that are not made of cloth can be much more difficult.  You may want to contact your seller or manufacturer and explain to them which pieces are broken so they can sell you an exact replica of the damaged piece.  My roman soldier armor was once dented and I tried to fix it myself with the use of a hammer, this did not work out well.The last area you should look into is costume storage. 

You will want to make sure that you store it with cedar so that moths will not destroy the fabric. Also take care to keep the costume in a dry area, since moisture can eventually lead to mold which will destroy a costume just as easily as a moth.

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