Ironing

I had the same problem for years. I gave up and bought a professional steamer at Best Buy after reading about it in real Simple. It's about $100 but has saved me so much time and stress it was $$ well spent. It is a stand-up model and I can hang the garment on the hook and take my steam nozzle and run it down the item. It takes less than half the time of ironing. It's great for casual and semi-dressy items. Will not give you a tight perfect press but gets the wrinkles out of 95% of what we wear - business shirts, slacks, even t-shirts and sweaters. You can also use it to save on dry cleaning. If a shirt has been worn for a short time you can just steam it and it will take away wrinkles and light odors. Hope this helps and good luck.

Good morning J.:

You're not ignorant. With all of the wonderful fabrics today, ironing is not as common now as prior decades. I'll bet I am older than you and believe me, we ironed everything.

I was taught to start with any facings (inside cloth for added stiffness and shape), collars and back and front of shoulders, then iron the sleeves. From there iron the rest of your garment. If you have a dress shirt for example, iron any pleats last so you do not iron over them. I generally turn the article away from me on the ironing board so as not to lean against it and cause a wrinkle.

Some fabrics can be difficult so you may want to use steam or a little starch. The rule is never use together, but I do and it gets all of the wrinkles out. I use a stiff spray starch but lightly spray, then have on the steam and I have a crisp unwrinkled item.

For cottons and wools your iron should be hot as this will help get rid of wrinkles. Of course satin, silk, along with polyester and other man-made cloths require low heat. Always make sure your iron is clean because the slightest spec when heated will transfer to your material, then you have a whole other set of issues. Watch for mineral deposits in your iron from the water and periodically clean with vinegar.

Hope this helps.

T.

OMG girl you crack me up! I've said the EXACT SAME THING! I must be an ironing IDIOT because I iron more wrinkles into the clothes than they even had! So now, I don't buy anything that requires ironing...(other than the occasional collar).... or I send it to be pressed at the cleaners if it's really important! :)

OK... I'm pretty much a middle-range expert since I do a lot of ironing for my husband's work clothes. I prefer not to use starch since it always seems to leave some flaky residue on the clothes no matter how low the setting i use on the iron.

I prefer to use good ole water from a spray bottle. I spray the area I'm working on first, then go over it with a HOT iron -- highest setting for regular cottons (since my husband has mostly Docker khaki pants and regular polo shirts -- we don't have any delicate fabrics.) If there's a huge, really bad wrinkle, I'll attack with 2 or 3 sprays from the water bottle and go over the area with the hot iron a few times. I like to use the steam setting on the iron too, but it's not necessary.

I also bought a CORDLESS iron. They sell these now, so the cord doesn't get in the way of your ironing. I used to hate how sometimes the cord would cling to the edge of the fabric and thus wrinkle what I just ironed. The cordless is fantastic. You just need to put the iron back on the charging base everytime you re-adjust the shirt around to iron a new area of the shirt/pants.

I purchased a new ironing board cover that has a nice pad. Make sure that your ironing board doesn't need a new cover. That was my problem at first -- a thin pad doesn't provide a good surface to work on.

Make sure that the ironing board is up high off the ground to the higest level...that way the area of the clothing you just ironed doesn't drag the floor and thus, get wrinkled again.

This has been my favorite request thus far since joining Mamasource. I cannot iron either, and the few times I have, it takes me forever, and the item still isn't right. I do the "take it right out of the dryer and hang it up" method, and if that doesn't work, use a spray bottle to spritz the shirt, and hang it to dry overnight. If this still doesn't work, I'll wear the semiwrinkled iron, and when I get to where I need to go, I say very loudly, "geez, I just ironed this" so at least people think I've tried and not just rolled out of bed in it. Silly, yes, but it's better than ironing! :)

I you look on the Martha Stewart website, she has a step by step guide to ironing. That should help

Hi J.!
You should try the Downy Wrinkle Releaser. Hang your shirt on a hanger, spray with the Downy then tug the fabric in every direction. The wrinkles just seem to fall out! Then just let the shirt dry on the hanger for a few minutes and voila, no more wrinkles!
C.

I know this is a mass-email question to all of us, but I totally feel for you! I gave up a long time ago and just throw them in the dryer now...TeeHeeeHeee

thankfully most of our clothes are cotton and casual, YEAH!

I think ironing is dufficult! I have the same problems! Now my husband takes his stuff to the cleaners! Sorry I can't be of much help, just glad to see I'm not the only one with this problem!
J.

all of these suggestions are great! But, somewhere I learned to place a layer of heavy duty foil under the ironing board cover! This helps to hold in the heat. I also like to use the steam setting with Downy Wrinkle Releaser instead of starch. Good Luck!

You are so not alone!! I have trouble with it, too! It's some sort of dark magic that is used to get all the wrinkles out. I stopped when I got so frustrated that I cried...I was 8 months pregnant at the time. I started taking them to the cleaners. It's worth the $10 a week sometimes for someone else to do it. Good luck!!

My advice is take it to the cleaners..haha! I hate ironing so that is my method!! Good luck!!

I would agree on the cleaners idea...I have not mastered the whole concept yet either...so my solution is I only buy items that wont wrinkle or can be fluffed in the dryer...seems to work for me!ha-ha C.

Ha! I had the same problem and one day actually asked the guy at the cleaners "How on earth do you get the clothes so smooth?" He said to iron the garment when it's damp. Sure enough, it works! If something is already completely dry, I spray the heck out of it with a spray bottle of tap water. Then iron on the hottest setting allowable for the material. If I'm really on top of things (this happens about once a year), I set the dryer to "damp dry" setting, jerk the clothes out immediately when the dryer stops and start ironing before they get dry. This works best because the fabric has been thoroughly soaked from washing. However, the spray bottle method is nearly as good, and that works for me! Happy ironing!