How To Iron & Steam Suits Without DAMAGING Them Press Suit Jackets Do's & Don'ts
[0:00:00] The jacket easily one of the most important
pieces in a man’s wardrobe.
It’s your suit of armor when you need to look your best.
Unfortunately, like all pieces of dress clothing it will develop wrinkles and too many wrinkles
can make even the most handsome jacket looks sloppy.
So, how to get rid of them?
Well, sending your jacket to the cleaners to be professional pressed, that’s a great
option and without a doubt if you’ve got a trusted professional, this can yield excellent
result.
However, if you’re sending your jacket to get professionally pressed all the time, this
can start to get expensive.
But how do you deal with wrinkles when you’re traveling or if you need that jacket pressed
hours before an important event?
Gentlemen, in today’s video I’m going to give you two methods that you can use to
properly and safely steam and press your jacket.
Method number one.
Steaming the jacket.
To get started with method number one, here is what you’re going to need.
First, a steamer.
There are two main types of steamers; there’s the smaller ones for traveling and the full
size ones for a home.
If you’ll often be steaming multiple items of clothing in your house, I highly recommend
you go out there and buy a full size steamer.
Those are going to work best, they put out a lot of steam.
If you travel frequently though or you’ve got a small apartment, then go ahead and just
get a travel steamer.
A clean jacket.
Gentlemen, you want to make sure that the jacket you’re going to be steaming and pressing
is free from stains and dirt.
Heat and steam can sometimes permanently set a stain, so you want to make sure to spot
clean any dirty spots on the jacket before exposing it to the heat.
Distilled water.
Only use distilled water in your steamer [jugs], tap water can leave sediment buildup that
will decrease the steamer’s effectiveness over time.
Gentlemen, you’re going to need to hang your jacket in order to steam it.
Use only wide shouldered hangers.
Now, as you’re steaming the jacket, you can actually leave it hanging in your closet
if there’s enough room, if there’s not, then take it into the bathroom and just hang
in on the shower rod.
Fill your steamer with distilled water and turn it on.
Give it two to three minutes to fully heat up.
It may take a little bit longer if you’re using a full size steamer with a lot of water.
You will steam the jacket in sections pulling the fabric taught before pressing the steamer
head to the fabric.
Slowly move the steamer in an up and down motion.
If the wrinkles aren’t coming out, you may be moving the steamer too quickly.
The primary areas that will need attention will be around the elbows, the back of the
jacket, and maybe a few small spots on the front of the jacket.
Be careful not to over steam using an excess amount of steam around the seams can cause
them to lose their shape aka blown the seams.
Overall steaming is an excellent method to get rid of the jacket’s wrinkles.
Overall, there’s very little risk in damaging your jacket.
But maybe you don’t have a steamer or perhaps that jacket has got a wrinkle which isn’t
coming out.
In this case, let’s look at the second method.
Method two.
Ironing your jacket.
Here’s what you need to iron your jacket; a pressing cloth.
Most jackets are made from delicate fabrics like wool that can be easily damaged by a
hot iron.
Gentlemen, you will never put that hot iron up against the jacket, you will use a pressing
cloth.
This pressing cloth is going to protect your jacket from scorches and getting shiny marks.
A simple white cotton pocket square is going to be fine.
A clean iron.
Gentlemen, you got to make sure that you’ve got a clean iron.
You don’t want anything that’s going to leave stains.
Now, most jackets are going to be darker color, but if it’s a lighter color you definitely
want to test the iron to make sure that you don’t have any sediment shooting out.
Again, if you start to have sediment or any type of looks like stains, rust, or anything
in there, use a solution of 50% vinegar 50% distilled water, run it through the steam
functions of the iron and that can help to clean that out.
A clean jacket.
Again, you’ve got to make sure the jacket is free from dirt and stains to avoid permanently
setting any of this.
So, if you noticed any stains, you noticed any dirt, do some spot cleaning.
A standard iron board.
It’s much easier to use a board than ironing on a table.
The board doesn’t need to be fancy, the basic ironing board found in any department
store will do nicely.
Gentlemen, you have to use distilled water.
Regular water can lead to sediment buildup and it can damage the iron and it can leave
sediment on the clothing.
To start, set the iron to the right heat setting.
Now, we’re talking about jackets here, so it is going to most likely be wool.
That’s a lower heat setting.
But if this is a cotton jacket, then you’re going to want to turn up the temperature a
bit.
It’s always better though to start with a lower temperature, then you can turn the
heat up.
Use the press method instead of sliding the iron like you would for a dress shirt.
So, press the iron evenly on top of the fabric for a few seconds, then pick it straight up
and move to another spot, sliding the iron back and forth can lead to shiny marks on
the fabric.
Now, I’m not going to lie, a jacket is rather difficult to iron especially around the shoulders.
I highly recommend only pressing the areas that really need attention like the back,
the elbows, the parts of the front that have a bit of wrinkles and leaving the rest to
a professional.
[0:05:01] To iron the back of the jacket, lay it out
flat on the ironing board.
Smooth out the fabric, so you will not make any creases.
Careful, press out the wrinkles by setting the iron straight down and picking it up again
before moving to a new spot.
Again, focus only on the wrinkled areas.
When ironing over the vents, make sure they’re aligned properly.
When it comes to the sleeves, only iron in the middle of the sleeve.
If you press on the edges, you’ll form a crease.
While this may look great on a dress shirt, it’s undesirable on jacket.
Be careful around the jacket lapels, this is another area where you don’t want to
create a crease.
If you need to iron the lapels, go over them gently with the iron.
There you have it gentlemen.
Though you will probably still need to get your jacket professionally cleaned and pressed
every now and then, these two methods can help you make it through the times when you
just need to get out those wrinkles quick.
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