How to Iron a Rayon Dress

Video Transcript

"Hello. I'm Donna Beth Joy Shapiro on behalf of ExpertVillage.com, and today I'm going to show you how to iron a dress. ...with all the little pleats in it. You could not iron this because you'd iron the pleats right out of it, and it's the pleats that really make this fabric so beautiful. This is a dress I bought fifteen years ago. I've never worn it; it's now too big for me, but I really should wear it because it's just a beautiful dress. One thing you want to make sure before you iron or steam any garment (but particularly before you steam it), is that you remove any of these tags. This is a garment I would be very careful about steaming because the fabric is...even steaming it, I think may take out some of these pleats, but we'll see. I think it's going to be okay. But again, anything with a specialty fabric like this, I would never attempt to iron. I often wonder how dry cleaners do these things; you know, what sort of secret stuff is going on. I'm going to steam the back of the neck here. I'm going to be very careful and not burn my hands. It's going to be a little bit tricky. You are just going to have to grab the fabric wherever you can, definitely keep it out of the path of the steam. Again, just make sure you are not dripping water. Sometimes these things do spit. I think no matter how much you spend on a steamer (this one was not inexpensive, and there certainly are more expensive steamers)...If you have any doubt about steaming a garment; if you are afraid of water dripping on the garment or something else happening to the garment, and the garment means a lot to you - take the garment to the dry cleaner. "