Ironing with Sean

Anonymous asked: "My biggest barrier to awesome style by far is ironing!

"Most of the clothing styles you show seem like they need to look crisp and ironed to look good. I am more likely to iron wrinkles in than out. And oh that thing where you iron the crease down the front of the pants? Mine always end up off center! I can wear dress shirts/pants once - the first time they come home from the store — and after that it’s a disaster. Any tips on ironing / how I can learn how to iron well?!"

Alright, alright. If you have never ironed before in your life, see these Ironing Tips For Bachelors instructions. (My tips don’t include things like how to not burn yourself.) Wrinkle-free clothes are the way to end up with wrinkled clothes, if ya know what I’m saying, wink! wink!… I digress. A few things to know before we get started:

1. First look at the fabric. Cotton and linen can withstand high heat, but polyester, silk, etc., can’t. It’s hella-easy to ruin clothes if you iron on a high temperature. Most irons have settings for different fabrics. If there is no fabric setting, here is a helpful temperature guide.

2. Some textured fabrics, like corduroy, need to get ironed on the wrong side. Otherwise it could ruin the texture. 

3. It’s best to iron when a shirt is still a little bit damp, because it’s easier to reshape.

4. If your clothes have a stain, don’t iron over the stain. It could permanently set it in.

OK Let’s go:

PANTS:

Lay pants flat on board, seams parallel to the board. Iron ‘til mostly wrinkle-free.

Line up the seams of the fabric. Crease pants. Iron front of pants to create crease. DONEZO.

SHIRTS:

Sleeves: Un-button shirt and cuffs. Grab the ends of of the sleeve (where seam of sleeve meets shirt and where seam meets cuff) pull taut, and place on the board. Iron to create a crease. (You may have to iron the back side, and then the front side again.) Repeat for other sleeve.

Sides: Place right side of shirt over the sleeve of the board (Women’s: holes; Men’s: buttons). Iron from collar to bottom, from the middle outwards. Once a “section” looks good, rotate shirt around, until you’re at the other side. Make sure the bottom hem is ironed well and not rolling up. Iron the side with button-holes extra-well, since that’s the first thing most people will see. Move the tip of the iron around the buttons. Just make sure to iron in the seams and pleats as they were meant to be.

Collar: Open up the collar and iron flat.

Upper back of shirt: Square this section with the ironing board.

PRO-TRICKS:

1. Dry cleaning is really bad. It literally removes a layer of your clothes. Try not to take anything to the dry cleaners unless you must.

2. When you’re done ironing your shirt, hang it to cool (OR, if you’re hella-OCD about wrinkles, place it on a flat surface). This will give your shirt time to cool down and “set.”

3. Use the water-sprayer like it’s going out of style. The sprayer helps get the wrinkles out, and preserves your clothes from the crazy-hot iron.

4. Keep the drier half-full at all times to give clothes room to move around and avoid extra wrinkling.

Cover image source: knitly.com