Ironing and Pressing Shirts

Collars & Cuffs

How we approach collars and cuffs depends on their structure. By this we don't mean the quality of the item but whether or not they use a fusible interlining to stiffen and stick the collar to the material, or a non-fusible stiffening which leaves the fabric loose.

This example is of a fused collar (remember to iron the right side);

Flatten the collar on the surface of the board so that the side you see is facing you, place the iron at one end and grip and pull the other end with the other hand.

Guide the iron quickly from one end towards your fingers, pulling all the time, only lifting your fingers away at the last moment before the iron reaches them.

Shirt & Skirt Demonstration Videos (click the download speed closest to your own)

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This method is quite simple and you can't go wrong so long as you keep pulling the collar.

The difficulty arises with the other type of collar. With these the fabric is loose so if you push the iron from one end to the other a roll of cloth will develop in front of the iron that will eventually become a crease when you reach the stitching at the other end, because it has nowhere to go. You will effectively set a crease in the collar if you follow the example above. Instead follow this example for perfect results;

1. Begin by placing the edge of the iron on the very edge of the collar, on the right side.	2. Move the iron down and away from the edge, creating a roll in front of the iron moving away from the edge of the collar.	3. Keep moving in and down until you get very close to the stitching that attaches the collar to the rest of the shirt.
4. Now move the iron to the area next to the one you've just don and start at the very edge.	5. Move the iron in towards the join.	6. Continue moving inward until you are again close to the join where the collar attaches to the shirt.

If you follow this example any crease that you have put in because the material is loose will occur next to the join where the shirt attaches to the collar. This is important because you can't see this area of the shirt once the collar is rolled over.

IMPORTANT:

Never fold and iron a collar or cuff to form a crease, they are meant to be rolled over. The brittle nature of the stiffening will wear them out very quickly if you do.

Consider cuffs exactly the same as with collars. They are either fused or non-fused but they come in two styles, either single sided and double sided, usually used with cufflinks. They should be treated in exactly the same way as collars and you should always iron the side that will be seen (effectively the inside of a double cuff and the outside of a single cuff).

Flatten and smooth the cuff then place the iron at one end and hold the other. If the cuff doesn't lay flat use your hand to raise it so the iron can iron a flat section.

Keep pulling the cuff while running the iron across. Angle the iron so that only part of it is on the cuff if it won't stay flat the whole way across.

Ironing a double cuff is the same as ironing a non fused collar, it's just a different shape. Start at a corner and work away from both the corner and the edge, pushing any rolled cloth backward. Stop if the roll is getting too large and flatten the cuff out again, re-starting lower down on the same side. As long as you push the cloth backwards you shouldn't have any unsightly creases formed anywhere they can be seen, the back section being next to the skin when the cuff is folded in two.