You could say I'm a professional ironer. I iron for a living. I put an ad in the paper and have about 20 people that Iron for, most of them weekly. On average I iron about 3 dozen shirts and pants daily. Yes, I guess I do like to iron and would rather do that than go out and work retail. I can do ironing throughout the day at the time that suits me. Not only that but I can sit down and I need to sit down due to the arthritis in my knees that won't allow me to stand or walk around for more than 2 hours at a time. I have ironed for people off and on now for over 10 years so I believe I have mastered the art of ironing, therefore I would like to share it with those of you who want to learn to iron correctly or those of you who hate ironing and might not hate it so much if you knew the correct way to do it.
When I started out ironing I couldn't get a whole shirt or pair of pants ironed without getting wrinkles back in a part of it that I had already ironed. This tends to make a person hate ironing. My mom, luckily, knew what I was doing wrong and taught me the correct way to do it. Here's what I learned…
A shirt with a collar:
First you open the collar and lay it flat. My first mistake was that I was ironing the crease in it where it folds down. This is incorrect and most people don't like it done that way. A little starch will help keep the collar standing up like it should. Next, pull one of the shoulders up over the end of the board and iron it and then the other shoulder. After that you should iron the sleeves. Take the seam on the underside of the sleeve and make sure it is laying flat. Smooth out any wrinkles with your hand then iron it. Make sure to iron around the button on the long sleeve shirts to make for a nice neat cuff. Turn it over and to the other side the same way. Do this with both sleeves. Then lay the unbuttoned shirt down on the board with the button side first. Do not try to iron both sides of the shirt at the same time by putting the front and back of the shirt together on the board. It should be opened up and each part of the shirt ironed separately. Stretch out the shirt and smooth out the wrinkles with your hand. Iron between the buttons and move the shirt over a little at a time until you have gone all the way around the shirt. This order should make it easier to keep from putting wrinkles back into the shirt on the parts that you have already ironed. Tee shirts should be done the same way but you don't have to worry about a collar.
Pants:
Unbutton the pants and start with one side of the top of the pants by pulling it up over the end of the ironing board. Iron the zipper flap and waist band. Pull the pants around to iron the front pocket. You may need to straighten out the pocket to keep from getting funky looking wrinkles underneath. Move the pants around until you are back to the place where you started. Next take the pants off and button them. Match up the belt loops to make sure your pants are in the proper position for the crease on the legs. Flip the pants over to where you are holding them by the legs. Match up the seams on the legs and lay them flat on the ironing board. Open up the legs to iron the inner side of one leg first. Then put the other leg on top and smooth it out with your hand then iron it. Next flip the pants over and do the same thing with the other side. You should have a nice sharp crease down the center of each leg now. Don't try to iron both legs at the same time because you will end up with wrinkles on the inside or on the other side of the legs. Shorts can be done the same way as pants.
I hope this is helpful and makes ironing a little easier and more enjoyable.
