The Way To Iron Dress Pants

By Author: Buck Samantha
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While we would all love to rock dress down Friday clothing five days a week, most guys will likely find themselves dressed in dress pants in most cases. A well ironed, non-wrinkled pair of pants finishes off an outfit, and says you really care for your job, body, etc. Having your pants ironed at your local cleaners is easy-but an annoyance and can get expensive. If you are like many guys, you will wear a suit or good dress pants a couple times before forking out the dry cleaning cash. Learning how to iron your pants yourself can make you more self-sufficient and offer a basic understanding of the clothing you wear.

Why Guys Hate to Iron Their Dress Pants
1. Being nervous about destroying them - Too high of a heat setting and the iron will give it an everlasting shine.
2. Lack of how to actually iron dress pants - Google ironing a shirt and you will find tons of advice and videos out there. How to iron dress pants? Nope.
3. You assume no one notices - Many of the guys in your office don't iron their pants or shirts - who's going to notice, right? Wrong - if you've got ambition, ...
... then dress like it.

What You're going to need
" Ironing board
" Iron
" Water - not from the tap, it can leave spots
" Clean(ish) dress pants

Critical Dress Pant Ironing Tips
" Press the iron (pick it up, put it down); do not move it around across the clothing. Let the steam and pressure become your friend.
" Make sure you get our any stains/dirt Prior to ironing. Otherwise you could have a permanent stain.
" Ironing time is an art. Therefore the rules are a little flexible. There should be as little time ironing as it takes to press out the wrinkles. Steam helps. I begin with 2 seconds, then change the time depending upon the fabric thickness and response to pressing.
" Make sure the iron is the right temperature for your dress pants. This really is a no-brainer, just look on the iron. For example, wool can easily be damaged by excessive heat. You'll need to let the iron cool and make sure it is set correctly when ironing dress pants after doing shirts (which are normally made from cotton and thus need a higher temperature setting).

How to Iron Your Dress Pants

Iron the Linings of the Pockets

Most dress pants have inside pocket linings. Although no one will most likely see these, if they're badly wrinkled and you wear your dress pants close fitted, an impression of the wrinkles might be visible. Prevent this by smoothing out the lining. Note that linings usually are made from cotton. You might have to begin with a hotter temperature if you are ironing wool dress pants, and then let the iron cool for a couple of minutes before ironing the remainder of the pants.

Go Top Down
Turn your front pockets out and then press the iron on the top of the leg. Lift the iron up, reinsert the pocket, and continue to iron along the top of the dress pant, paying special attention to pleats and re-forming any folds.

Move to the back of the dress pants, and pull out the back pockets. Iron these areas and then move up to the waistband.

Finally, move to the opposite front side of the slacks, turning the pocket inside out and repeating the process.
Mark the Dress Pants Crease at the base to prepare For Ironing
Flip a dress pant leg up and off of the board so that you're dealing with just one leg, and lay it flat on the board. Look inside the cuff and find the two seams.

Get the dress pant leg so that one inseam lies right on top of the other, in the center of the flat leg. With the inseams in the center, the sides of the dress pant leg are where you would like to iron the crease.

Spray the cuff with water and press down lightly on each side of the dress pant leg. This will likely leave a cool crease at the cuff and an inch or two up the leg.

Mark the Crease towards the top
Find the same two vertical inseams and match them up, one on top of the other, just like you did with the bottom, but this time at the top of the pants.

Lay the top of the dress pant leg flat with all the inseams centered.
Lightly and gently iron (press down remember?) a crease into place along that edge, about six inches down from the waistband.

Don't iron the crease all of the way up to the waistband. The bottom of the pockets (on the inside of the dress pants) is a good spot to stop, or if you have pleated dress pants you can just iron the pant crease right up to the base of the side pleats.

Iron the front side Crease
Now that you've got the beginning and end of the crease marked, it's just an issue of connecting the dots. If the inseams still are set one atop the other, the crease ought to be the very edge of the dress pant leg as it lies flat.
Press gently down in one spot with the iron. Then lift the iron, progress up a little, and repeat it. Always push downward rather than sliding the iron over the crease.

Work all of the way up from the marker at the cuff to the marker just under the pockets. It's worth reaching inside the dress pant and pulling the pocket aside so that you don't accidentally press its shape into the dress pant leg while you're focusing on the crease and mess up your hard work.

Press Down the Dress pant Leg
Once you've got your creases set you can press the center of the dress pant leg in between the creases to get out any small wrinkles or folds. Use the same motion you have been using: press the iron flat, pick it back up, and repeat again just a little further along.
If you're concerned with the dress pant fabric, you can cover it with a thin, clean white cloth and press through that. In the case of delicate or napped weaves (like those expensive thin grey flannel pants) a barrier prevents "shine," which is the slicked-down look you get when you have ironed too rigorously or at too high of a temperature.

You do not need to press the two sides of the same dress pant leg.
Once you're done ironing both legs (and the rest of the dress pants, if desired), be sure you hang them to allow them to dry completely before wearing. If you wear the dress pants damp you'll work the crease right back out, wasting all your efforts.
Ok, now you look fantastic and should have confidence in coming off as a true professional, standing out among other workers (and maybe even bar patrons after work).

Check out this link for more information: Ways To Iron Cloths