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Ironing a Dress Shirt


Gold Post Medal for All Time! 523 Posts
May 26, 2015

A crisply ironed white shirt.My intentions were to respond to Jackie H.'s post, 'Hairspray for Creased Jeans'. As you might imagine, I got carried away and went too many miles down memory lane. Not wanting to impose on Jackie's post with an even longer response, I put my comments here.

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Way back in the last century, around the 50s and 60s, most clothing was pure cotton. Polyester, blends and permanent press were practically unheard of. As a young adult, I hand washed my shirts, paying particular attention to the collar. It was scrubbed, vigorously. I checked for loose buttons or specks of lint in the pocket. If necessary, I turned the pocket inside out and scrubbed its inside bottom with a toothbrush. Lint showing through a white shirt pocket was not acceptable.

I always rinsed my shirts three times. Oxydol and Rinso made a lot of suds. After rinsing, they were treated to a medium starch rinse. And after that, the collars and cuffs were treated to a heavy starch. The shirts were then hung (hanged?) on a clothesline, where they dried and the sun further whitened the whites. Often, all that work was in vain and the shirts had to be re-laundered. It was heartbreaking to go to the clothesline and see my beautiful white shirts spattered with elongated purple spots; the gift from a robin who had gorged on mulberries and then shamelessly disgraced himself on my best and whitest shirts.

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When dry, the shirts (those that were still clean), were brought in and dampened. Before I had a spray bottle filled with water, I use to use a little gadget made just for dampening clothes. It was made of plastic or aluminum, was full of holes, much like a tiny salt shaker, and fit nicely into the top of a Pepsi bottle filled with water. Back then, this was called 'sprinkling clothes'.

After sprinkling the shirts, each one was rolled into a ball and placed into a pillow case. The pillow case was placed into the refrigerator, where the shirts were kept fresh while the 'sprinkles' evened out to a uniform dampness.

People, I could give Prince Charles' laundress a few lessons on ironing a white dress shirt. Mine approached perfection. Labor intensive? Yes, and I loved it. All the little grey haired ladies in the neighborhood would comment on how nice my shirts looked. And there was usually a comment about the crease in the arms being so straight and sharp, they looked as it they could cut you. I ate those comments with a spoon!

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I won't give any tips on ironing shirts, here. I'm just reminiscing a bit. I will tell you one thing; a lot of time and work went into ironing a shirt just to be worn maybe six hours or less. Where did I find the time or energy?

They say to be completely in style, you have to be a little out of style. I can make do with that because, if washed, rinsed, starched, line dried, sprinkled, and ironed shirts come back in style, I'm going to be a whole lot out of style.

Those were the days.

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July 19, 2011

To iron a shirt, make sure to put water in the iron or use a spray bottle to moisten the shirt. Do the collar first, then yoke, then do the right side, back of shirt, then the left side.

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Iron the arms last.

 
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November 23, 2005

Start by ironing sleeves, cuffs, belts and collars before ironing the body of the shirt. This will prevent you from having to re-iron the body of the shirt which is bound to get wrinkled when you iron the smaller part of the garment.

 
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December 6, 2011

As a kid, I learned how to iron a shirt. Most important hint: Using a spray bottle, lightly spray shirt here and there and roll into a ball. Refrigerate in a plastic bag for 5 minutes to 5 hours. First do the back of the collar, then front.

 
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