When to Iron, Dry Clean or Steam Clothing: Part 1

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. This is a corduroy dress. You should never iron corduroy. Some people say you can turn it over and iron it on the other side. That can work, but this collar is corduroy on both sides. It would be much easier just to steam and in the space of just a few seconds, this collar is going to relax and I would be ready to wear this dress again. This is a rayon dress. I'm not sure if you can see it but the fabric is subtly pleated; that's the way the fabric is made. I would never put an iron to this dress because I would iron out those beautiful pleats. I would steam it, albeit from a distance. Some people might also try to iron it on the other side. I wouldn't do that because I think no matter where you iron this thing, you are going to iron these beautiful pleats out. Some people might put a pricing cloth on top of it and try to iron it. I wouldn't do it; I would steam it. I take great pleasure, actually, in ironing pleated garments. When you take something like this out of the washing machine, it is just a mess. I just love flattening everything down and I use heavy starch. And because I've used heavy starch, when I wear the blouse, it barely wrinkles. It looks great through the day. This iis why you want to use starch. This garment just ironed without starch, in the space of a few minutes would just be a wrinkled mess. This is a suit. It's synthetic. I would never attempt to iron this, obviously. It would just melt. I wouldn't even go at this with a steamer because I would be afraid that any sort of water droplets would stain the light colored fabric. And so, this needs to be cleaned anyways. When you wear a light colored garment like this, when you buy a garment like this, you are just making a bargain with yourself that every couple of wears it's going to have to go to the dry cleaner. Leather; leather and synthetic. This is rayon, these sleeves in the back are made of. When I bought it, the leather had this natural crease in it. I would never, ever get an iron or a steamer near this garment. If I ever needed to get it cleaned, I would take it to a cleaner that specializes in leather. "