How to iron clothes
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Trying to find out how to iron your clothes? We’ve put together a complete guide to ironing your clothes properly. This makes ironing less of a chore, cuts your ironing time in half and leaves your clothes looking better. Yay!
Always check the laundry guide inside each item of clothing. Different fabrics are ironed at different temperatures
Ironing clothes is one of those things you either refuse to do, or you’ve long since accepted it needs to be done, and so just do it.
If it’s got to be done, you want it done in the fastest time possible right? Well in that case, knowing how to iron properly will not only have your clothes looking better, but it actually makes ironing a lot faster, allowing you to get through that ironing pile in super fast time.
Who wants to spend more time than they absolutely have to ironing, right?
Hanging your clothes after you’ve ironed them is 90% of the way to keep them looking fresh and ready for their next outing. The other 10% is hanging them properly 🙂
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✅ How to iron clothes properly
When it comes to ironing, we’ve all got the we we do it because that’s what we’ve always done. But have a read through this guide, you might be surprised at what you’ve not been doing!
Make sure you’ve got a god ironing board, that’s well padded so you’ve got a nice smooth surface to iron onto (see our best ironing board reviews here). This gives you a head start already.
Being short on space in your home doesn’t mean a second rate ironing board either if you’ve not got the space for a full sized one (small ironing board reviews here!), you can still find a board that suits your needs.
Once you’re set up, get the iron heated up on a lower heat setting and while it’s doing so, go through your ironing pile and roughly sort your clothes into groups.
Demins and jersey fabrics can take a higher heat setting so leave these until last (although always check the ironing care guide labels in each item).
Start with your most delicate fabrics that need ironing on a low heat setting first.
How to iron shirts
Ironing shirts is one of the most tedious ironing tasks there is. They’re awkward and it’s hard to get right up into the shoulders. However, if you iron it in sections and in order, it becomes a lot easier.
How to iron a shirt
- Start with the collar. Iron both the back and the front, undoing any collar buttons to iron and then doing them back up again
- Move to the cuffs. Iron these on the inside, and then move to the arms, starting with the side without the cuff opening and then turning and finishing with the cuff opening side. Button the cuffs up once you’ve finished both arms
- Work your way around the shirt, starting with one side and then working your way to the other making sure the materials is pulled taught over the ironing board
- When you’re finished, end by hanging on a hanger, buttoning up the top collar button and one in the middle of the shirt. This keeps the shirt hanging crease free until you wear to wear it
Check out this video from Laurastar on YouTube
How to iron trousers
Follow these steps for quick trouser pressing
- Turn your trousers inside out
- Iron the waistband
- Iron any pockets, on both sides, so they sit flat against the fabric when you’re wearing your trousers
- Pull the hems of each leg flat and iron along the seams until the whole leg is ironed, on both sides
- Repeat on the other leg
- Use a hanger for your trousers until you’re ready to wear them
How to press trousers
How to iron skirts
Ironing skirts can be a little trickier if they’re pleated, but once you get the hang of it, it doesn’t take long!
Non-pleated skirts
- Turn your skirt inside out
- Put the skirt ‘over’ the end of the ironing board so you can move it around in sections until you’re back where you started from
- Pull the fabric taught against the ironing board and work your way from one side to the other, then use a skirt hanger to keep it crease free until you’re ready to wear it
Pleated skirts
- Turn your skirt inside out
- Iron the waist band
- Thread your skirt over the end of the ironing board
- Start at a seam, and then gather two or three pleats together in place, holding them in place with your hand at the bottom seam and then slowly iron the pleats into place moving your hand as you get near the bottom!
- Work your way around the skirt from one seam to the other
- Hang
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How to iron dresses
- Turn your dress inside out
- If your dress has sleeves, follow the shirt guide for sleeves
- Then, pull the body of the fabric taught against your ironing board and iron both sides of your dress
- For the dress skirt, follow either the above guide to a pleated or non-pleated skirt
✅ What is the easiest way to iron clothes?
The easiest way to iron clothes is with a good ironing board, and clean steam iron. You don’t need to have loads of space for a huge board, there are some great smaller ironing boards on the market for those of us who have small spaces.
Make sure you’ve got all the hangers you need for any dresses, skirts and shirts.
Once you’ve got these basics on place, sort your clothes out before you start ironing, and start with the most delicate fabric items, before moving onto the heavier duty pieces.
✅ Can you iron all clothes?
Not all clothes can be ironed. Always make sure you read the laundry label before you iron something, it takes a second for the iron to burn through a very delicate piece of fabric – and there’s no coming back from that 🙂
✅ When should you iron your clothes?
If you’ve tumble dried your clothes, then ironing them as soon as they’ve come out and are still warm is the best time to get them ironed.
The creases won’t have set yet and your ironing time will be hugely reduced.
However, we get this isn’t always (ever?!) possible and so the next best thing you can do is to roughly fold the clothes when they come out warm. Nothing creases like a pile of warm clothes left to go cold.
You’re doubling your ironing workload if you let warm clothes go cold! If you’ve line dried your clothes, simply fold and iron them when you can.
