Iron a pleated skirt: how to keep the folds
Pleated fabric is processed using a special technology, and its folds do not smooth out either when washing or ironing. However, the accuracy of the lines, and especially for fashionable models with different directions of sweetness, may suffer. However, there are several ways to iron a pleated skirt at home.
Recommended method
If you search YouTube or the web, you will find one answer: buy a steam generator or steamer. These devices are designed for professional ironing and cope best with pleating and its analogues: they completely smooth out the slopes and do not deform the edges of the folds. BUT. Such a device is quite bulky and expensive, and it makes no sense to buy it for the sake of a single polyester skirt.
Procedure for using the steamer/steam generator:
- Attach the skirt to a trouser hanger at the belt and hang it at chest level or slightly lower - so that you can work comfortably.
- Steam the skirt vertically, moving along the folds and straightening them slightly. The temperature is gentle (the required parameter is necessarily indicated on the insert - follow it).
Advice
The key to caring for pleating is washing and drying. Send the skirt to the drum in a mesh bag, or better yet, in a stocking. Dry strictly flat, either on a hanger with clips if the pleats are vertical, or on a horizontal rack if the pleating is transverse, diagonal or combined.
How to use an iron
In practice, the author of the magazine purity-en.htgetrid.com was convinced that a pleated skirt and even simple bow folds do not suffer at all when ironed. The only thing is that you will need a little more accuracy and the narrow end of the ironing board.
Procedure:
- Place the properly dried skirt on the narrow end of the board - there is no need to tighten the belt.
- If the skirt is double-layered, fold back the top tier and iron the lining.
- Place the pleated part on the board again and, with light movements, return the pleats to their assembled state.
- Use a heated iron to run along the folds. Gentle temperatures and moderate steaming are recommended. A good option is strong steaming, but then the sole should not crush the fabric - keep the iron suspended.
- Turn the unironed side facing you, gather the folds again and repeat the ironing motion.
Basting
Many craftsmen are sure that it is impossible to iron a pleated skirt without basting. This means that each (!) fold is sewn with long stitches by hand. Only then is the skirt ironed, and then the basting is unraveled.
The magazine purity-en.htgetrid.com does not recommend this method for skirts made of thin materials, such as silk (natural / artificial) or chiffon. Delicate fabric will be left with needle marks and unsightly creases from the thread, and constant care in this way will quickly thin out the fabric, and the item will have to be thrown out sooner.
Modern production technologies allow a pleated skirt to be done practically without ironing - just take it out of the washing machine and hang it up. Once dry, only the lining will need to be ironed. But if creases have formed, do not be afraid to iron - a gentle temperature cannot overcome the factory press, and the folds will not deteriorate.