How To Do Just About Everything
Unfortunately, many shirts do need ironing - but if you learn to do it yourself, you'll save enough on dry-cleaning to buy several more. There are certain things you need to keep in mind when ironing a shirt so you don't end up with more wrinkles than you started with and the answers are below.
Find the tag on your shirt that indicates what it's made of.
Plug in the iron and set the dial to the recommended setting for that fabric. One hundred percent cotton and linen need a high setting; wools and cotton blends call for medium heat; polyester, rayon, nylon, silk, acetate and acrylic all need a low heat setting.
Iron the back of the collar first, then the front, taking care to iron in from the edges a little at a time to avoid creases.
Open cuffs fully. Iron inside first, then outside.
Iron sleeves after smoothing them flat to avoid creases. Do sleeve backs first, fronts second and take extra care on armhole seams.
Hang shirt over board so that one front panel of the shirt can be extended flat (collar at narrower end of board). Iron from shoulder to shirttail.
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Comments
FoxtailsLaundry said
on 5/26/2007 Clean your iron of starch residue with white vinegar. Use also to get ironed in wrinkles out by dabbing lightly onto wrinkle and re-ironing. Warning, it doesn't smell that great, so let it evaporate before wearing.
mrjordan419 said
on 1/21/2007 rain water? lol
Anonymous said
on 9/13/2006 Don't use rain water. Over time the acid in the rain will eat the shirt away. They got away with it in the old days because there wasn't the same pollution there is today.
Anonymous said
on 7/12/2006 Consider turning shirts inside out to iron. There are two reasons: The seams will be crisper because the seams are stitched from the inside (thus they line up perfectly). Also (especially with colored shirts) spray starch residue is on the inside. No need to worry about unsightly starch reside.
Anonymous said
on 2/7/2006 My Mother was visiting me one day when I was ironing, she had seen I was using distilled water. She told me in the old days people used rain water; it is the same as distilled. I tried it, and my clothes had a nicer feel to them.