In this guide we go into greater details on how to iron your pants efficiently and correctly. Below are the summary of steps to follow with more explanations below:-
- Get Your Iron Ready
- Iron the Pocket Linings
- Iron Waist Band & Top Part
- Mark Trouser Crease at Bottom
- Mark Creases at Top
- Press The Front Crease & Trouser Leg
Table of Contents
1. Get Your Iron Ready
First get your iron ready. Fill it up with some distilled water. When you’re ironing a blended fabric like you see in dress pants choose the lowest or coolest setting of the two fabrics.
For example, if you’re ironing a 70% wool/polyester blend you would start with the 3 and maybe go to a 4. Lower temperatures will take longer to set a crease but they’re less likely to damage your pants.
2. Iron the Pocket Linings
Most dress trousers have inside pocket linings and although no one will ever see them even if they are severely wrinkled and you wear your trousers close fitted and impression the wrinkles might be visible so to prevent this smooth out the lining
3. Iron the Waist Band & Top Part of Trouser
Turn the front pockets out and then press the iron on the top of the leg. Lift the iron up, reinsert the pocket and continue to press along the top of the trouser, paying special attention to the pleats and
reforming any folds.
Remember when you’re ironing dress pants you do not want to push it along you, want to press and lift, press and lift. Pushing the iron along can cause the pants to get those shiny marks that look really bad.
Move to the seat of the trousers and pull out the back pockets and do the press and lift motion and then move to the waistband
4. Mark Trouser Crease At Bottom
Mark the trouser crease at the bottom then lay your trousers on the ironing board flat with the cuffs right at one end and the waist draped over the far end. Arrange the trouser legs so that one inseam lies right on top of the other dead center of the flat leg within seams in the center the edges of the trouser leg are where you want to press the crease.
Spray the cuff with a bit of water and press down gently on each side of the trouser leg. This should leave a visible crease at the cuff and an inch or two up the leg.
5. Mark Creases at The Top
Find the same two vertical inseams and match them up one on top of the other just like you did above with the bottom crease but this time at the top of the pants. Lay the top of the trouser leg flat with inseam centered what they oughta edge of the trouser leg and use the iron to gently press a crease into place along that edge about six inches down from the waist band.
6. Press The Front Crease & Trouser Leg
Now that you’ve got a start and finish of the crease on marked it’s just a matter of connecting the dots. If the end seams are still one atop of the other, the crease should be the very edge of the trouser leg as it lies flat.
Press gently down in one spot with the iron then lift the iron and move it up a bit then do it again, always pressing straight down rather than pushing and sliding along the crease.
Repeat the same process used to create the front crease to create a back crease. Again press down gently to set the crease in place and then lifting the iron back up again. Press down the trouser leg.
Once you’ve got your creases set you can press the center of the trouser leg between the creases to get out any small wrinkles or folds. Use the same motion you’ve been using ie press the iron flat, pick it back up and repeat again a little further along.
You want to repeat the forming the crease and then pressing the trouser leg on the other leg. And that’s how you iron dress pants
The above article is a transcript from the video below from The Art of Manliness.
Ironing Khakis
With khakis you can use a higher heat setting because khakis are made of cotton and also because khaki are a casual pant meaning you can iron them without a crease in the front so just go ahead and iron
the fronts flat which makes life easy not too worried about lining that creases.