View Single Post
  #600  
Old February 7th 17, 09:47 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
John B.[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,697
Default AG: This tip probably doesn't apply at your house.

On Tue, 07 Feb 2017 01:07:40 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Mon, 06 Feb 2017 13:59:07 +0700, John B.
wrote:

Do you know anything about permanent pressed shirts? By any name?


My information is at least forty years out of date.

When I was reading housewives' professional magazines as a teenager, I
wondered why so much fuss was made about the difficulty of ironing
shirts -- surely ironing a white shirt couldn't be any harder than
ironing a white blouse. After marrying a teacher, I learned that
shirts are easier to iron than blouses -- but you have to iron at
least five of them every single week. I got through the stack by
timing myself, and trying to beat my previous time on every shirt. I
think I got it down to seven minutes.

Permanent press shirts had to be ironed anyway, because the
top-stitching puckered. But they were easier to iron than all-cotton
shirts, and didn't rumple when worn, so we bought perma-press.

I made all his sports shirts, and left the collar button off because
he never fastened it.

(If a shirt was large enough in the neck, it hung on him everywhere
else. His current white shirt has the collar button sewn to a bit of
tape to make the neck bigger, and his tie hides the improvisation. I
don't remember what we did about it back then.)

The fabric I bought was thicker than dress-shirt fabric, hence more
perma-press -- I would squeeze a corner of the fabric in my hand, and
not buy it if I could press in wrinkles that way. I put the shirts
together with french seams and sewed the pockets on by hand, so that
there was no top-stitching. These shirts could be dried on a hanger
and worn without further ado.

Nowadays he wears mail-order shirts, and I don't iron them. This is
partly because serged (overlockered) seams have the virtues of french
seams, and partly because I'm not as fussy. I do tumble them in the
drier for a minute or two, then shake them thoroughly before drying
them on suit hangers. Hmm . . . I don't remember the last time I
found one of his woven sport shirts in the wash. He prefers henley
shirts now, and I think there are still some polo shirts around.

Polyester is intolerable if the temperate is above the lower end of
comfortable, and I'm pretty sure polyester is still the only fiber
that can be permanently pressed. I imagine that where you are,
perma-press would go over like a lead balloon.


Thanks for the information and yes, you are correct in that none of
the larger, up market, department stores admitted to ever hearing of
such a thing.

Re ironing, the climate here is such that one wears a shirt only one
day, and if I had an important meeting in the afternoon I might take
an extra shirt to the office in the morning.

I'm not sure exactly how much ironing my wife does, of her clothes,
excepting that I do know that hand woven silk, or silk - cotton,
requires special care,

Idle information: In Japan a "dress" kimono is taken apart - all the
sewing is removed - and the pieces are washed and dried separately,
then sewed back together.
--
Cheers,

John B.

Ads
 

Home - Home - Home - Home - Home