A Tutorial on Ironing, Sleeves, Creased Pants, and Ruffles

The Old Farmers Wife instructs us on ironing.

Now we are home enjoying our semi quarantine

and I am tidying up some of my neglected mending and ironing.

So it seemed a good time for this.

First you want dampened cloth or you can spray or steam as you go.

For a laundry basket full of predampened clothes go back to one of the early posts

Called "Tueday was....". (It followed Monday is Wash Day)

SLEEVES

These are tricky if you don't know the tricks.
Start with the shoulder over the end of the board and iron it.
Then lay the sleeve out flat and iron it. Now the trick!

Flatten it with the outer side centered over the inner seam 

and lay one edge over the side of the board.

Then you can iron the middle out with the iron off the edge 

of the board and not pressing the other edge, ergo no inadvertent creases.

TROUSER CREASE

If you don't want creased pants iron them as you would sleeves.
Start your pants with the tops put over the end of board and iron around
the waist and pockets. Then lay them out lengthwise along the top of board.
 with the inseam and outside seams lined up over top of each other

from the crotch down to the hem. Iron flat to the edges.
Them fold back the top leg and iron the bottom leg.
Flip them over and repeat on reverse side.

Perfectly centered creases.

RUFFLES

These may just require a little practice to get the feel of.
You stretch out the edge of ruffle following the curve as it goes.
Iron along the edge with the tip of the iron working into ruffle.
You may only be able to do a few inches at a time depending on how wide the ruffle is.

You will get the feel for this after doing a few inches.

So there it is.
Wishing us all luck clearing up these odds and ends
lingering around the house until we have time! 

Tuesday was...

Tuesday follows Monday and that means ironing!
(refer to last weeks blog)

 

So Monday night The Old Farmers Wife took down the dry laundry from the line.

It was brought in and spread out on a table or the ironing board and sprinkled,

yes we made it wet again! Our Farmer's Wife technique was to dip her hand in bowl of water
and shake hand over the dry laundry. More citified folks had corked sprinkler caps you could
put on a bottle of your choice up to high end figurals. A great collectible. 

 

By the way fresh laundry brought in from outdoors smells so good,
now we buy fresh linen scent.

 

So sprinkled and folded and rolled up tight, packed back in the laundry basket overnight.

Sitting overnight allowed the sprinkling to evenly dampen the fabric before ironing.

This would be almost all but for towels and washcloths, and sheets,
altho I think some people did iron sheets too! But we gave them a good shake,
then folded them up in our house.

 

 

Us girls were trained starting with hankies only, then moved up to aprons, skirts then pants;

pants and pleats required a bit of skill but blouses/shirts were the hardest.

You started with the collar and cuffs, then went to the sleeves, then laying lengthwise over the edge of the board so you could iron out the center of the sleeve with the iron hanging

over edge of board so you wouldn't get a crease.
Halfway there! Now the shoulders over the tip of the board, then the body of shirt/blouse. 

 

As a previous comment noted on washday,

"no wonder my aunt was tired at the end of the day".

And that was just the half of it! No dryers or steam irons or wrinkle free fabrics....