Q: Don't you NEED the squarish end of the ironing board to properly (at least easily) iron the front and especially the back of a dress shirt?
I already have (and hate) a small-sized wall-attached ironing board: PICTURE:
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doesn't work well because the attached end is actually needed to properly iron the front and especially the back of a men's cotton dress shirt.
I bought (from Costco) a large-sized free-standing ironing board: PICTURE:
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doesn't work well because the end that is actually needed to properly iron the front and especially the back of a men's cotton dress shirt is ruined by the presence of a 'shelf' for the iron.
WHAT AM I MISSING? If you iron, answer me this please ...
Q: Don't you NEED the squarish end of the ironing board to properly (at least easily) iron the front and especially the back of a shirt?
It wouldn't bother me so much that the end of the Costco board had that non-removable steel attachment if having a square end wasn't the sole reason I bought the board in the first place!
Of course, I can return it ... but I need to figure out best to gracefully REMOVE that end-of-the-board attachment.
My mom ran off with a truck driver when I was five, and I learned to iron early in life. For Levis, we used those wire pants stretchers, which were cool, cuz they put the creases in there.
When I iron a shirt, I have an order. A lot of it involves using the veed end of the ironing board. For the back, I put the arm opening on to the vee, and stretch it so I can iron the yoke of the shirt, and down the sleeve a little. Then do the other side. With that ironed, I just iron in a circle, moving the shirt each time to iron the flat parts of the front and back. It won't all fit on there flat, but once you have the collar, yoke, sleeves, and top of the shirt done, the flat part is all that's left.
My order: Collar, yoke (move it on the point to get one side at a time), the cuffs, the sleeves (lay flat and fully extended on the big flat part of the board), then the back.
You will have some bunching at the top of the shirt where the collar and yoke are, but most of the rest of the shirt will fall flat on the biggest part of the ironing board.
The end of the ironing board is tapered because all men's shirts and most women's dresses are narrower at the collar than at the shoulders. All ironing boards have this feature, even folding ones (hinged at the butt, this with only a single end.) Iron rests at the square end of the board are usually mounted a couple of inches lower than the top of the board to enable using the square end (e.g. for fitted sheets.)
The only things I have ever used the square end for is as a place to hang the bunch of shirts that I'm about to iron and as the place to put the iron down (without looking) as I move the shirt to it's next position.
Everything is done on V end of the board, which is always to my left since I iron with my right hand.
Collar first. Right sleeve, then left sleeve. Lower right front, then upper right front pulled over the V Quick swipe over the right yoke The back in 3 sections Lower left front, then upper left front pulled over the V Quick swipe over the left yoke.
On some shirts, the quick swipe over the left yoke puts a bit of wrinkle in the upper left front, so when I put the shirt on the hanger, I give it a quick blast of steam and the wrinkles disappear.
Everything is done on V end of the board, which is always to my left since I iron with my right hand.
Whatever the order you prefer, I agree that 100% of the ironing goes on at the V end of the board. I wonder why they even put any other style on the other end, as if they would have put another V, it would have simply made it ambidextrous.
For me, I hang the "shoulders" of the shirt across the square end.
I first iron the back that way (which gets the entire back in one fell swoop); then I do the two fronts the same way.
I can't even imagine using the triangular end of the board to fit the square shoulder of the iron - but then again - I never took ironing lessons.
Like this:
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However, these videos all use the triangular end for the back & front:
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?v=SThmH4x1U-w&feature=related
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?v=bn73Jt78mws&feature=related I can't believe they're all doing it that inefficiently but the videos are predominant in using the triangular end for the back & front of the shirt!
I use the pointy end and stick it down the sleeve. I iron that portion that would be upper left and upper right chest. Then, spin it around to do the two front halves, then around again to do the back. I intentionally do the collar, yoke, cuffs, and sleeves first, as this gives the shirt a little stiffness that helps through the rest of the process. Guess I'll have to youtube myself ironing a shirt. My MIL does it for me now. It is so great to just go to the laundry area rack and pick up nicely ironed shirts. She's good. Maybe I'll youtube her, too.
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