Why you're re-ironing your "laundered and pressed" shirts at home?

The reason you’re re-ironing your shirts at home is quite simple: Your cleaner is delivering a machine pressed laundered shirt or a hand finished laundered shirt.

Whereas you should be insisting on a hand ironed laundered shirt.

Most cleaners bang your shirts out on a pressing machine at a rate of 40 to 50 per hour per presser. They call that a “machine pressed laundered shirt”.

Other cleaners take that same machine pressed shirt and crease the sleeves with a hand iron. They call that a “hand finished laundered shirt” or, believe it or not, a “premium hand finished laundered shirt”.

As far as we’re concerned, it doesn’t matter if it’s a “machine pressed laundered shirt” or a “hand finished laundered shirt” or a “premium hand finished laundered shirt”. It’s still bang and hang work.

How can you tell that you’re getting bang and hang work?

Look for

  • Wrinkles and ripples on both sides of the collars and cuffs
  • Wrinkles and ripples in the pockets, pocket flaps and epaulets
  • Wrinkles and ripples in the front and sleeve plackets
  • Collars that are not correctly broken at the lower rear (i.e., there is a gap between the lower edge of the collar and the collar/back joining seam)
  • Frayed collar points
  • Collar stay impressions
  • A triangular shaped collar (instead of a perfectly rounded collar)
  • Collars and cuffs that are abrading or fraying prematurely
  • Puckered side, sleeve and yolk seams
  • Puckered joins between the body and sleeves of the shirt
  • Puckered joins between the sleeves and cuffs of the shirt
  • Wrinkled underarms
  • Creased sleeves (often automatically done without the client having been given the option of a rolled sleeve)
  • Poor packaging (multiple hangered shirts in a single, thin, narrow poly bag or folded shirts in a thin, narrow poly bag).

So ask for a hand ironed laundered shirt.

But be careful: In all probability, your cleaner will continue to deliver a machine pressed laundered shirt or a hand finished laundered shirt ($2 to $4) and swear it’s a hand ironed laundered shirt ($10 to $20).

Does your cleaner bait and switch and then pocket the difference?