To be successful at ironing, you must be mentally prepared. A slovenly attitude breeds carelessness and mistakes. Clothes can be ruined and it will all end in tears.

Getting In The Mood

So the first stage is to dress for the part, get yourself mentally attuned as a diligent housewife.

Skirts must be worn at all times, preferably protected by a pretty apron or pinafore.

Setting The Temperature.

First look at the care label on the garment to see what fabric it is made from, and what setting the manu- facturers recommend.

Some irons actually have a fabric guide the majority do not. Most irons now have thermostatic settings symbolised by a series of dots You just set the iron to the setting marked on the care label.

The symbols most commonly used are these:

If you are in doubt, please do be cautious. Start with a cool iron and if this doesn't seem to do the trick increase the temperature until the creases dissapear. How easily this happens will also depend on the moisture in the garment, so let's look at judging the moisture.

Judging The Moisture.

Just like when you first learned to walk in high heels, judging whether your clothes are too damp or too dry to iron is all a matter of balance.

If the clothes are too wet when they are ironed you will get a poor finish and they will probably need ironing later.

But then again if the fabric has been allowed to get too dry it is often impossible to achieve a smooth, crisp finish. And we do want it crisp, don't we?

For most common |fabrics you will need Ito iron them when they are just slightly damp to the touch. If they are already dry, either use the steam setting if your iron has one, or use a small spray such as you might buy for household plants.

Just be careful with silk and viscose as these fabrics will show water marks and so should not be sprayed. Chiffon, Practise your technique georgette, crepe and acrylic fibres should only be ironed when they are completely dry.