You know those tips that your mom or uncle or woman at work pass on that are supposed to solve ‘problem X’ with little or no effort, and you try them, and they don’t actually work worth a shit? This thread is about those.
I will go first:
So yah, total bullshit. This has worked for exactly no-one, ever, in the history of the universe. I got a new blouse (this one, actually) and it was mildly creased from the store. So I hung it in the bathroom and hopped in the shower. I took a long, hot shower - at least 20 minutes. I had the door closed. The steam was thick in the room. I got out, dried off, threw on my robe and then ironed the blouse.
Doesn’t work for heavy wrinkles (like when it’s packed) but light stuff from hanging in a closet too tightly? Works a charm.
(If it doesn’t work for you, move on to dropping it in the dryer with a damp washrag for about 5 minutes. That ALWAYS works, and works for really bad wrinkles also. If you’re doing more than one article of clothing, I find a wet hand-towel works better to provide more moisture.)
I’ve been told that if I get a run in my hose, I should use clear nail polish on it. Only problem with that is that I don’t keep clear nail polish around the house, and if I’ve got to run out to the store to get the nail polish, I’d might as well just buy a new pair of hose. (And while you could always suggest that I START keeping a container of clear nail polish around the house, it’s really the same thing there: why not just keep an extra pair of hose around the house?)
I think the clear nail polish is better because it should last a while and will patch multiple holes in the same pair of hose. Don’t you ladies have giant purses, keep it in there.
Thing is with the nailpolish thing…it stops a run, but the RUN IS ALREADY THERE. It’s RIGHT THERE. So the hose is already useless. Doesn’t really matter if it’s a one inch run or a 3 inch; it’s still a ruined pair of hose, so why bother.
If it’s a little run at the toe and you can stop it before it exits your shoes you’ll get through the day, so yeah this is only really worth while if the nailpolish is in your purse.
Back when I had long fingernails I always had runs int he thighs of my hose from pulling them up. Clear fignernail polish + long skirt = weeks more wear from the hose.
That thing about putting lotion on your legs to stop static cling in your skirt though? Complete rubbish!!!
LIES! The pair of you obviously live in an alternative universe where the laws of time and space don’t apply.
Or perhaps you’re using this on different fabrics? Although I still have to call bullshit - the bathroom was really steamy and it didn’t even soften the creases - I turned on my steamer/iron combo and it took less than 30 seconds of steam from it to get the wrinkles out.
The steam to get out wrinkles doesn’t work great for me either. But if I fail to dry off my torso and arms, and put the shirt on while I’m still wet, that works pretty well. I’ll be dry by the time I have to leave.
I use the steam method for my cotton dresses. I have the plastic hangers with swivel hooks, and I hang a dress or two on the curtain rod, right outside the curtain. Then, after I’m done, I open the curtain and move the hanger to the area with the most steam. This doesn’t work with deeply set in creases, but it works with most of my clothes. I do have one blouse which apparently loves the iron, though, and refuses to release its wrinkles for the steam. That blouse needs sizing as well as the iron.
The blouse you linked is mostly rayon, a type of fabric that’s notoriously difficult to press or steam. Steaming a garment in the bathroom while you’re taking a shower, or throwing it in the dryer with a wet dishcloth, will work wonders provided that it’s made of cotton or a cotton blend. Womens’ clothing tends to incorporate a greater variety of fabric, which is probably why some people get no benefit from this method.
But me – I’m a guy, and most of my shirts are cotton blends, so this little tip worked wonders for me in the past. I only stopped because I purchased a professional garment steamer.*
And also because I jumped out of the shower one morning, got dressed, grabbed my shirt from the bathroom, and sprinted out the door without turning the shower off. I had left it on while I was getting dressed, just to press the shirt a little better. It was only later that night, after coming up from the subway and looking at my apartment window and seeing that it was totally opaque with steam, that I realized what I had done. The scene in the bathroom, after the shower had been blasting heated water for ten hours, is beyond my ability to describe.
Rayon is a bitch to maintain. It wrinkles like mad and nothing can touch it.
Not true! Sometimes you have a run that isn’t visible (above the skirt line or below the shoe line) and you can keep it from ruining the hose. You may also have a runned pair that can still work if you wear boots or a longer skirt.
