Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette and part four to our series about ironing.
Today we discuss how to iron a suit jacket or press a sport coat.
Many people are hesitant to press a jacket and even a tailor can sometimes takes 30 to
45 minutes to completely and accurately press a jacket.
Unfortunately the procurement tailors use is very expensive but I'll still show
you a way on how you can press a jacket at home with a very minimal investment in equipment.
First of all the easiest way to remove wrinkles from a jacket especially that is made out
of wool is with the steam.
The least expensive way is to hang your jacket on a hanger with
wide shoulder pads because it keeps the shape of the shoulder and then simply hang it in
your bathroom, turn on the hot water, let it sit in there so you create a lot of steam.
Let the jacket hang there overnight in the morning at least the most extreme wrinkles
should have come out.
An even better and faster alternative to the bathroom is to invest in a steamer.
Usually about 100 bucks will get you a long way then you will end up something that produce
a lot of steam and you could just steam your jacket when it hangs on a hanger.
It has the advantage that you can de-wrinkle specific areas such as the sleeve head, the
sleeve or the back and honestly it works really really well.
I had a suit shipped to me in very little packages and they came out looking really
really bad but if it's a quality cloth it will release wrinkles when it's steamed as
long as it is made of wool.
If you have a jacket like with linen or cotton you'll have to iron out and press it.
They're a little more difficult to iron but it's not impossible.
If you have a linen jacket you can skip the cloth because it can bear a lot of heat you
just crank up the temperature all the way and you go to the maximum steam setting.
The more steam the better!
If you just have a regular ironing board and an iron you're quite limited in what you can
do when it comes to pressing.
The easiest areas are flat areas such as the front quarters maybe the pockets and the pocket
flaps the center back seam and if you really want to you can also try yourselves on the
sleeves.
Just like with pants, drying two layers of fabric on top of each other which is not ideal
but doable.
If you want to iron your jackets at home I strongly suggest to invest about $35 into
a sleeve board and into a tailor's ham. Those two things will make it much easier to iron
your jacket and you can actually iron any part of the jacket to achieve a really wonderful
good proper result.
If money is of no concern to you definitely invest in that vacuum table because it sucks
away all the steam and it will give you better result without any waves and it's just also
quicker to iron.
First, I suggest you start with the body and you can lay it over the tip of the ironing
board similarly to a shirt.
Carefully work on the front quarters.
To prevent your jacket from getting shiny it pays to have a pressing cloth which could
be made of linen maybe an old t-shirt that you cut and generally want something that
has no lint and no fuzz.
Simply put between the iron and the garment and pull at the edges so you can see what's
going on while you iron.
The next step up from this is to get a Teflon sole because it will prevent the fabric from
getting shiny but you can see everything that's going on.
Once you're done with the front quarters it's time to go to the lapels.
Personally I really much prefer to iron the lapels on a tailor's ham and a sleeve board
because you get that natural rounding that the lapel has on your body.
A quality handmade jacket is always identifiable by their lapel roll.
Cheap suits or some that were pressed cheaply have very flat pressed lapel area and you
should avoid that at all cost because it makes it look cheap and you don't want that.
To increase the lapel roll you can even iron the lapel in the beginning part from the back
which really helps to achieve this beautiful bespoke style roll.
Don't iron over the lapel line that's folded because otherwise it's stiff and flat.
Once you're done with that you could iron the back area of the jacket.
That's easily done even on a regular ironing board with a regular iron.
Just pay attention to the seams which is the center seam and try to not press hard on them
but slightly on the side that way you won't see the pattern of the seams on the outside
of the fabric.
That's especially important with thinner more flimsy fabrics.
The same is true when ironing for example the corners of your back vents.
If you want a crisp result you can use a clapper to get that nice crease.
Next up it's time to iron sleeves and that's when a sleeve board comes in really really
handy.
Better than ironing two layers of fabric at the same time I prefer to have one layer of
fabric but a sleeve is usually never just straight.
Don't worry if there is a slight curve and you want to maintain that curve by ironing
in that same fashion.
Mostly for this I know are straight and so it's a little challenge but you can do it
by follow the patterns on the jacket sleeve.
If there's no pattern simply take that motion in a slight banana curve.
When you do that try to keep the curve of the sleeve
and don't press the edges otherwise you get a military-style look that looks very un-advantageous
on a regular jacket in my opinion.
Similarly to a shirt sleeve you simply rotate the sleeve and that way you ensure to have
a nice even result without any wrinkles and without any military crease on your sleeve.
Stay clear of the sleeve head which is better ironed using a tailor's ham.
You can really prop it in there, try to adjust it, pull things flat ideally over the sleeve
board because that way it drapes more easily nothing is in your way and you can just focus
on ironing.
It's a lot easier that way.
Use steam gentle motions and don't press too hard on it so you remove all the wrinkles.
When you're done with that slightly adjust the tailor's ham so you can iron the front
part of the chest as well as the back.
Again think about jackets when it's worn.
From the top here you want to go and iron in lines down and keep that same shape, same
in the back.
With that center seam and so you go in the shape it drapes over the body.
Gently use steam.
Now you can also iron the back area underneath the collar
and also the collar itself.
It's very difficult or next to impossible to iron a collar on a flat ironing board.
You need the sleeve board and a tailors ham so it can roll and drape nicely and just iron
little parts of it.
If you have patch pockets you can use the sleeve board as well to iron them and then
maybe the clapper on top to get a straight edge.
At this point you're basically done with your jacket.
Ideally you put it in a hanger or even better a mannequin so you can really look it over
and see any areas that you might have missed or it just got wrinkles while you were ironing
other parts.
Again take a look at the lapels.
Make sure the roll is there.
There is no puckering or any waviness.
Look at the shoulders, look at the sleeves again because sometimes you see creases on
the inside of the elbow or usually jackets crease above the bum around the waist level
in the back.
Last but not the least you may not be happy with the wrinkles in the lining.
Now ideally use your iron and hover over it with a steam and pull it at the same time
that will likely release most of the wrinkles.
If it doesn't you can gently press it or use a steamer that produces even more steam than
the regular iron and you should be good to go.
Just be careful not to press too hard because otherwise you may end up with wrinkles on
the outside of the jacket which is a lot worse than in the lining.
Alright now you know how to iron a jacket at home!
If you haven't already done so please check out part 1, 2 & 3 of this ironing series.
We talked about the equipment, how to iron dress shirts and how to iron dress pants.
In today's video I am wearing a red, white and blue check shirt with barrel cuffs because
it's easier than French cuffs when you iron.
I also skipped the jacket because I wanted a full range of movement so I'm not hindered
when I iron.
So I just opted for a blue Harris tweed vest.
I combined it with a Bordeaux red silk knit tie from Fort Belvedere and a pair of off-white
wool flannel winter pants.
White or off white winter flannels are not something you typically see these days but they were
quite popular in the 30s.
My shoes are full brogue derby wingtips in a nice chestnut brown and I combine them with
a pair of light pink and gray socks that provide just enough contrast between the shoes and the pants.
They're from Fort Belvedere and you can find out all of the accessories in our shop here.