Iron Your Own Shirt With This Easy method

If you do not know how to iron a shirt correctly, don't worry. It is often something that is not taught to us. Sure we may have fond memories of watching Grandma or even our own mother ironing but how many times did they ever stop to give you a lesson on how to do it?

Ironing is not all that difficult but it can be time consuming to prep to do it. This is not something to do if you only have a few minutes, if you are ironing then plan on taking up at least 10 minutes of your time.

Some people prefer to do all their ironing with starch but for our method we will only be using water. No special water either (distilled). You can use tap water but if you live in an area with really hard water, then you may use distilled or bottled water.

To iron a shirt properly you will first need some basic supplies: An Ironing board, an iron, a spray bottle filled with water

To start ironing a shirt we will be starting with the front of the shirt. Slip the shirt onto the board so that the left hand side of the shirt is facing up on the board and the rest of the shirt is hanging off the back of the board. Imagine as though the ironing board is acting as though it is putting the shirt on by entering the left side of the shirt first. You use the curve of the end of the ironing board to act as the shoulder. Now, mist the shirt with your spray bottle and then you start ironing over the front of the shirt. When you approach the part of the shirt that has the buttons on the edges, you pull the bottom part of the shirt taught and then work against the direction you are pulling at with the iron. Next you will then proceed to pull the shoulder taught by once again pulling the end of the shirt so that you can iron the front of the shirt where your pectoral muscles would be.

Continue to do the front right side of the shirt in the same way.

Once both sides are done you are now going to do the back side. lay the shirt so that the back of the shirt is in the middle and so that the collar of the shirt is slightly hanging off the "head" of the board. Spray the shirt and start pulling on the bottom hem of the shirt. Once again, using the "head" for resistance and moving the iron opposite direction from the pull of your hand.

Next you will need to do the sleeves and collar. Just iron the sleeves by placing the entire sleeve of one side of the shirt across the board and then flipping to get the back side of the sleeve and the other sleeve. Next you will unbutton the cuff and lay it flat. Spritz the cuff with water and iron the cuff flat. You will also iron the collar in the same fashion.

Shannon has a website for tips on how to shop and use a travel clothes steamer and particularly how to shop and use a jiffy travel steamer.