'Ironing It Out'

A recent trip to my girlfriend’s New York City apartment made me realize that even the most successful professional needs help ironing.

“Do you like this dress?” my friend asked, wearing a black babydoll dress.

“Um, yeah,” I said, looking up and down at the wrinkles on her dress. “But you’re going to have to iron that.”

“Really?”

“Really,” I said. I could hear the groan escaping my friend's lips.

“Didn’t you take a class on this?”she asked, which I knew was an indicator that I was soon about to iron my girlfriend’s cotton frock.

She was alluding to my studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the three hours I once spent reviewing how to properly iron a men’s shirt according to my wardrobe stylist instructor.

Ironing is an art in itself and perhaps a skill that so many women outside the fashion industry, like my girlfriend, leave to their dry cleaners. As I evenly spread the underskirt of her dress on her bed and started to iron (not surprisingly, there was no ironing board in the apartment), I relayed some of my ironing tips to her.

For the busy professional or time-pressed housewife, this is some of the advice I gave:

- If you don’t have an ironing board and the fabric you need to press is especially delicate (ie. Silk), use a towel or drop cloth underneath.

- Always iron on the wrong side first, then on the right side. Use a press cloth when ironing the right side. The press cloth protects the fabric.

- Iron away from you. This prevents wrinkles.

- Always press. That’s why it’s called pressing! Do not slide the iron from place to place. It will take much longer to get rid of wrinkles.

- Allow the area you just pressed to cool. If it’s not cooled, moving the fabric could recreate unwanted wrinkles.

- Never iron over buttons, zippers, snaps and hooks. Doing so might ruin them with the heat.

- Leave seams last for ironing. Flatten them out, ironing on the wrong side. Using too much moisture may shrink the seams and cause ripples.

For more helpful tips on ironing, send an e-mail to master@besthomefashion.com.

-S. Gonzalez

*Photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk