# Fabric Care—Need Answer Fast

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-care-need-answer-fast/532698>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 16, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-care-need-answer-fast/532698 "2010-03-16T21:46:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-care-need-answer-fast/532698/1 "2010-03-16T21:46:28Z")

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Please help an incompetent male with fabric care. I have a silk tie I need for Friday. I don’t have time to get to the dry cleaner. It’s not dirty, just wrinkly. Can I iron it?

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**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-care-need-answer-fast/532698/2 "2010-03-16T22:07:31Z")

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You may be best off steaming the wrinkles out by hanging it in the bathroom when you take a long, hot shower.

I don’t have too much personal experience with caring for silk, so I’ll leave now and let other Dopers chime in, but I will say this: Googling “ironing silk ties” brings up a LOT of results, most of which say something along the lines of “iron only on a cool setting and only if you reallyreallyreally have to.”

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**Author:** ![SylverOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SylverOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SylverOne)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-care-need-answer-fast/532698/3 "2010-03-16T22:16:38Z")

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If you do… I would also put a clean towel over the tie, so that the iron is not touching it directly.

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**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fabric-care-need-answer-fast/532698/4 "2010-03-16T22:23:14Z")

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I have used both of the suggestions made here – the ironing at home and the shower steaming in a hotel room. I did the ironing on low heat and set a t-shirt on top of the tie so the iron didn’t touch it directly. That worked fine. If the wrinkles aren’t too bad (no creases), then the shower method works fine.