Wrinkly shirts

[Perd Hapley]

I've had a lot of button-down shirts, with set-in wrinkles that just wouldn't die. I've tried ironing, ironing with starch, washing with hot water, washing with cold water, washing buttoned up and unbuttoned, and nothing has helped.

They get wrinkly around the button placket, or sometimes the tips of the collar. It mostly happens with second-hand shirts, but most of mine are second-hand, and it's only a problem for about 10% of them. It seems to mostly occur with all cotton shirts.

They end up looking kind of like this one, but they're often so wrinkled, that the two parts of the shirt don't overlap, exposing my rock-hard six-pack abs.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140122210928AA4grEE

The suggestions I've found so far is to wash the shirt inside out, buttoned together. Any other ideas?

[bedlamite]

Start wearing wife beaters.

[BobR]

Buy a new shirt every now and then. 


bob

[Marnoot]

I've had shirts this happens to, I don't end up wearing them much because they're too much trouble. I'd guess it's a result of either the fabric blend or construction as I have many shirts this never happens to. Of course it's hard to know before you buy them whether they'll have the problem. I guess you could at least take note of the brands and avoid them in the future.

[MillCreek]

I wear oxford-cloth button down collar shirts almost exclusively at work.   After years of experimentation with various brands, I now buy my dress shirts at only two places: Costco and Lands' End.  The no-iron button down shirts there are superb.  At Costco, I can buy them all day for $ 18.  And Lands' End, I wait for the 25 or 30% off sales, and end up getting my shirts for about $ 35 each shipped. They wear like iron and don't wrinkle.  The 'no-iron' part is important, since in my house, we have a rule that whoever buys clothing needing ironing has to do the actual ironing.  My wife is good at ironing but I am not.  So I make sure that I buy stuff that does not have to be ironed.

[AJ Dual]

Wash them buttoned, then only dry them for 15 minutes to tumble out the winless and get them hot.  Then hang them, all buttoned up,  while still damp and hot to hang dry.

Not perfect,  but eliminates 90% of the ironing.  For stubborn creases or wrinkles,  folding it the opposite way,  then ironing it usually gets it out for me.

[Monkeyleg]

I have a couple of shirts that are wrinkled even after ironing.

For the others, after I pull them from the dryer while they're still tumbling, I'll hang them in the bathroom and run the shower until the room steams up. Let them hang in there until they're cool, and most wrinkles are gone. This works well when staying in hotels, too. Old trick you've probably heard of.

[MechAg94]

I wear oxford-cloth button down collar shirts almost exclusively at work.   After years of experimentation with various brands, I now buy my dress shirts at only two places: Costco and Lands' End.  The no-iron button down shirts there are superb.  At Costco, I can buy them all day for $ 18.  And Lands' End, I wait for the 25 or 30% off sales, and end up getting my shirts for about $ 35 each shipped. They wear like iron and don't wrinkle.  The 'no-iron' part is important, since in my house, we have a rule that whoever buys clothing needing ironing has to do the actual ironing.  My wife is good at ironing but I am not.  So I make sure that I buy stuff that does not have to be ironed.

My Mother used to buy a lot of Lands End stuff.  Good quality if you know your sizes.  Mostly thicker fabrics if I remember right. 

When I wore them at work, I got to buying Ralph Lauren shirts and others of similar quality.  Not cheap, but they hold up better than a lot of cheaper stuff.  They can be cheaper if you catch the stores when they are having the end of season sales. 

I wear Fire retardant uniform clothes at work now so I just take those shirts to the cleaners since I don't wear them much.  Occasion pressing at the cleaners helps a lot of shirts look better. 

[230RN]

I used to have shirts with stays in the collar --little plastic strips that slipped into little pockets in the back of the collar.  Don't they still make shirts like that?

I have two dress shirts for just-in-case purposes, haven't worn either for ~>15 years.  But I know about the unremovable wrinkle problem, especially on pants where their creases aren't in the right places.  Don't have a solution to that as yet. Even reversing the wrinkle and ironing doesn't work too well.

[Monkeyleg]

I used to have shirts with stays in the collar --little plastic strips that slipped into little pockets in the back of the collar.  Don't they still make shirts like that?

I have two dress shirts for just-in-case purposes, haven't worn either for ~>15 years.  But I know about the unremovable wrinkle problem, especially on pants where their creases aren't in the right places.  Don't have a solution to that as yet. Even reversing the wrinkle and ironing doesn't work too well.

They still make shirts like that. Less expensive shirts have them sewn in and not removable. Better shirts have them removable. I'm a real stickler about collar points on dress shirts, and so bought a set of brass collar stays. They're rigid, and not flexible like the plastic.

[Jamisjockey]

My dress shirts have those little collar pockets.  I don't wear dress shirts enough to sweat it though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk