Ironing

Do you iron clothes?

Back before perma-press, wrinkle-free, and other synthetic fabrics were available nearly all clothing that wasn't sent to the dry cleaners had to be ironed. Housewives often set aside one day every week to iron all the clothes their family needed. Before steam irons, clothing would be sprinkled with water and rolled up for a few hours or overnight so the moisture spread through all the fabric before it was ironed. It was a lot of work and we were glad when the newer fabrics came along.

Now we still wear some clothes made from those traditional fabrics, and even the newer ones often need touching up, but ironing isn't nearly as difficult a chore as it was years ago.

Recently I had bought an outfit made from crinkle-cotton that came with instructions saying it shouldn't be ironed at all, but it was badly wrinkled even when washed according to the directions. I also had another crinkle-cotton outfit made by a different company that said it was okay to use a low iron and no steam. Since I couldn't wear the first outfit as it was, I decided to be brave and iron it the way the instructions on the second outfit said to do. It worked!

Years ago I never thought I'd be grateful that something could be ironed.