Earlier this week, I
tweeted a beautiful picture portraying Korean women acting together to stretch
out clothing and, with the aid of a suitable hot iron, remove all the creases
from the cloth. Lovely as the image is
from an aesthetic perspective, it made me think about how long have we been so
particular around the cloth we dress ourselves in and how important is it for
us all to be crease free?
History tells us that
it was the Chinese who were the first to press their cloth smooth using hot
metal and this method has been in use for over a thousand years. Elsewhere, Northern Europeans were employing the
not quite so sophisticated method of using stones, glass and wood for
smoothing cloth. Flat hand-size stones were rubbed over woven cloth to smooth it,
polish it or to press in pleated folds. Simple round linen smoothers made of dark glass
have been found Viking women's graves and are believed to have been
used with smoothing boards. Archaeologists know there were plenty of these
across medieval Europe, but they aren't completely sure how they were used.
Water may have been used to dampen linen, but it is unlikely the smoothers were
heated.
Glass or hard wood smoothers often had handles and were also known as slickers,
slickstones, sleekstones, or slickenstones – resembling inverted mushrooms. These days they may still turn up in antique auctions.
Such smoothers were standard laundering equipment until well into the 19th
century, even after the introduction of hot metal irons, as they were convenient
for small jobs when the heating of charcoals for hot irons was too much
trouble.
Researching all this made me realise that the
better your equipment, the easier your job. Actually, I learnt something else too but it says more about my ignorance than
anything else – I discovered why mum calls her linen cupboard a “press”. It’s because sheets and tablecloths would
have been flattened and smoothed between screw presses – large flat surfaces
which were screwed down over expanses of cloth to smooth them. Imagine a large flower press. Later presses sometimes
doubled as storage furniture, with linen left folded flat under the board after
pressing even when there were no drawers. Later presses included drawers for linens.
Even though we now have to
just plug in a wait 30 seconds (at most) for our irons to achieve the desired
temperatures, in the name of further efficiency, I have listed below some great
tips to improve your ironing. Whether you dread the task and leave it until your ironing pile resembles the Blackpool Tower or you have regular weekly date with you, your ironing board, steam
iron and Loose Women, Jeremy Kyle, Andrew Marr or soap of your choice, then
they’ll be something here for you. Personally, Ben Fogle on a Sunday morning is
my ironing partner of choice but each to their own!
Tips:
- Move the fabric away from you not toward you as you iron, to avoid needless creasing.
- Improve results - reflect more heat. Do this by putting a sheet of aluminum foil (shiny side up) between your ironing board and the ironing board cover. Alternatively, purchase a metal coated ironing board cover.
- Certain fabrics such as viscose, dark fabrics, acetates, and wash and wear fabrics in general, should be ironed on the reverse side to avoid giving a shine.
- One of the best money saving ironing tips is to make your own starch solution if you like to use a spray starch. Simply dissolve 1 tablespoon of cornflower in 2 cups of water, pour the solution into a spray bottle, et voilà, you have your own spray starch.
- Some ironing boards come with a sleeve board attachment, ideal for shirts and blouses. If you don’t have one, roll up a towel and insert it in the sleeve before ironing to avoid creases if needed.
- Some thick fabrics need ironing on both sides. Be sure to iron the inside first and the outside last.
- Take a moment to sort your laundry before starting to iron so you have a pile of garments needing low temperature and graduate to the garments needing a higher temperature, adjusting the thermometer on your iron progressively. So much easier than waiting for the iron to cool so you can press your favourite blouse after tackling the kids' jeans.
- Don’t iron dirty clothing or stained clothing. It can make it difficult to remove the stain afterwards as it becomes set in the fabric.
- After ironing shirts, put them on hangers and then fasten the top and centre buttons. The shirt will then hang straight and your ironing efforts will last
- For large items like tablecloths or sheets, put layers of newspaper out on a large table, cover them with a sheet and place the tablecloth or bed sheet on top to iron.
- When choosing an ironing board, get one with a wide end. It is easier and quicker to iron on this extra surface with fewer strokes and doesn’t require moving the fabric so often.
- For shirts, iron them when slightly damp. If they have dried too much, spray them with a little water.
For most of us, the better we look, the better we feel and no one
would deny that wrinkle free, clean clothing helps present you at your best.
If
there aren’t enough hours in the day for you, we can always help out – give us
a call today and see how much we can do for you. You'll be surprised how little it can cost and what price more "me time" of time with your family? www.iron-maids.co.uk
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