Me too. We had a water filled soda bottle with a perforated metal top on it that you used to sprinkle what needed to be ironed. Then you rolled it up and waited a bit for it to overall dampen before ironing.
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Question of the Day - Sunday 27 February
- Thread starter gilmargl
- Start Date
We don't have an iron. Got rid of it years ago since nothing either of us wears needs pressing.
If something did, more likely we'd bring it up to the local cleaners.
If something did, more likely we'd bring it up to the local cleaners.
That's what I do too. The last thing I had to take there was DD's graduation gown. They had it done quickly and it was reasonably priced. I probably would have burned it if I had tried to do it myself.
In junior high, all the boys had to take industrial arts (I know: What's that?), and we swapped for one card marking period with the girls in home economics. They taught us how to iron there.
I have an iron and only use it for pressing dresser scarves and some curtains. At times, the wrinkles in shirts get to me and I'll iron them (generally only the placket and collars, though). I don't have an ironing board; I use a folded towel on top of the washing machine.
I have an iron and only use it for pressing dresser scarves and some curtains. At times, the wrinkles in shirts get to me and I'll iron them (generally only the placket and collars, though). I don't have an ironing board; I use a folded towel on top of the washing machine.
I still have a iron but only use it occasionally. Hubby wears shirts for nights out, i did iron a lot when one of my son's first started working because he had to wear shirts and pants for the office. Now the youngest has started working they don't seem to be as stricked on the dress code, unless they have clients coming in the office. My eldest was in the army they taught him well, he does the ironing at his for him and his wife.
I don't iron anything really. I had a few shirts that required that I iron them, so I would do them, but they don't fit anymore, so it's not anything I need to do anymore. I have an iron, but I primarily use it now to do iron-on transfers.
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I iron by putting on a hanger while I take a shower.
I used to but mostly do iron on transfers now.
Thank you for sharing your memories,
gilmargl
! You have a gift for storytelling.
I never did iron too much. I tried to buy clothes that didn't need it (Coldwater Creek was my favorite, and I mourned when they closed the bricks and mortar stores). Most of my ironing involved sewing projects like curtains. But I never minded ironing as long as there wasn't too much of it. I found it somewhat soothing to slowly move the iron across the fabric and watch the wrinkles disappear.
For those who hate to iron and are in a hurry, there's always Downy Wrinkle Releaser!
gilmargl
! You have a gift for storytelling.I never did iron too much. I tried to buy clothes that didn't need it (Coldwater Creek was my favorite, and I mourned when they closed the bricks and mortar stores). Most of my ironing involved sewing projects like curtains. But I never minded ironing as long as there wasn't too much of it. I found it somewhat soothing to slowly move the iron across the fabric and watch the wrinkles disappear.
For those who hate to iron and are in a hurry, there's always Downy Wrinkle Releaser!
Back when ouir son and my nephews were little,I did a lot of sewing and made a lot of their clothes,and for myself as well,so ironing was always necessary.Then I learned how to make quilts,and an iron is a must there.Nowadays I may pull a shirt or a pair of slacks out of the closet for hubby that needs to be pressed.There's no telling how old my iron is,and the ironing board too!
My ex husband loves to iron. I think he'd crazy! Now that I'm a nomad living in a 17' travel trailer I make sure I only have clothes (very few of them) that don't require ironingThe sun is shining on this the last Sunday in February - another month bites the dust - where does the time go?
That was a purely rhetorical question! Hope you have a pleasant Sunday, whatever you decide to do!
Today's question is about "ironing" – a job I used to loathe! You can go straight to the question if you don’t want to read this old lady’s reminiscences.
I grew up in post war London, as the eldest child in, for me, a frighteningly fast ever-growing family. When I was 14, we were 6 children – 4 of them needing meticulously ironed shirts or blouses as part of their school uniforms, pressed pinafore dresses and trousers, and my father wore a white shirt for work and a dress shirt when he played at weekends in a dance band. The daily amount of washing and drying was no doubt a nightmare for my mother but my job was the pile of, hopefully dry, ironing, taken in from the outdoor washing line and thrown haphazardly under the stairs. In bad weather washing was hung up under the ceiling in the small kitchen which housed a smoky, coal boiler. The washing was often forgotten when we cooked breakfast. No doubt we sometimes smelt of fried bacon and smoke when we put on our “clean” clothes.
So ironing was a big, daily chore, but we didn’t make it easy for ourselves – we ironed everything from socks to towels to underwear and swimsuits to nightwear and sheets and blankets! We had to wait till my father had eaten his dinner before protecting the dining room table with the towels, followed by a carefully folded sheet - no ironing board at that time! There were few electrical plugs and sockets in the house – in the living room it was a case of being able to plug in the radio or the iron. The radio had a plug, but the iron only had two bare wires.
For safety reasons, the socket needed a 3-pin plug so we stuck a pencil in the third hole so that the bare wires could be inserted! I only once had an accident when the well-worn lead caught fire. My mother, resting in an armchair, screamed at me to remove the wires from the socket and thankfully the fire went out and didn’t do any further damage. That was the end of ironing until my father hastily purchased a new iron and plug and although the job wasn’t any easier it was safer.
The 2 men in my life have been classic shirt (and sometimes tie) characters who only wear T-shirts or casual shirts for sport. Neither of them can handle an iron. But I trained my 2 daughters early in life to follow my example and choose easy care clothes which need minimal ironing. They learnt to do their own ironing early on - as it was a job I always put off till the last minute and, if they decided to wear a particular article of clothing, it would often be found in the pile of ironing - waiting!
Today, the only things I iron (apart from a man’s white or blue shirts!) are tea-towels and the occasional tablecloth. I rub the iron over such things as jeans, tops, and T-shirts, when necessary, but it’s nothing compared with the time I spent on frilly blouses and pleated cotton skirts!
In fact, I now enjoy ironing – I only put it off because the ironing board is in the same cupboard as the vacuum cleaner and 3 of my cats freak out when I open THAT door! The fourth cat is quite happy to get under my feet and under the iron if I didn’t watch out!
And now, at last! Sunday’s question!
Do you still do ironing? What do you iron? Do you enjoy it? Do any men iron?
Any further comments are very welcome!
My clothes don't need ironing anymore, so it's been years since I did that regularly. When I was married, I ironed every Monday afternoon for several hours. I used to sit in the dirty, dingy basement with that hot iron, thinking about my husband out entertaining his mistress at the same time I was ironing. How I resented that. I quit ironing his shirts the day I filed for divorce. (He was shocked.)
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I never enjoyed ironing but I have no choice. My husband buys these pants with a lot of pockets, making it more loathsome for me to iron clothes. LOL.
I have an iron. Somewhere.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
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I love linen too, but got tired of arriving at an important meeting wearing a screwed up rag after only a short ride in a taxi! Since retiring, I can't do justice to chic, fashionable clothes anyway, so I leave them to the younger generation.
I also was the oldest of many. My father taught me to iron his church clothes. It was my job nearly every Sunday from maybe 12 to 18.
My husband's buttoned shirts are now "easy care" and rarely require ironing. In fact, on the rare occasion the collar or sleeve is creased, I will smooth it with my hair flatiron.
BUT, the timing of this question made me smile because my boys had wrinkled their church shirts so terribly when hanging laundry that just last week I pulled out the iron and board and pressed every single one and hung them in my own closet so I don't have to repeat the job.
My husband's buttoned shirts are now "easy care" and rarely require ironing. In fact, on the rare occasion the collar or sleeve is creased, I will smooth it with my hair flatiron.
BUT, the timing of this question made me smile because my boys had wrinkled their church shirts so terribly when hanging laundry that just last week I pulled out the iron and board and pressed every single one and hung them in my own closet so I don't have to repeat the job.
Oh, yes! I remember my mom doing that.
I haven't ironed in years but my hubby does every day. He wears cotton button down shirts and they have to be perfectly ironed. We leave an ironing board set up in the guest room so he can do that to his heart's content.
I iron my work shirts, nothing like the feel of a crispy fresh shirt. (Tee shirts in the summer though.)
