How to Iron Clothes Without Burning Them

If you’re like me and start getting into sewing, you’ll suddenly find that you’re ironing a whole lot more than you used to. But even if you’re not, at some point in your life, you’re going to have to iron something. And the thing with irons is, they can burn your clothes if you’re not careful. But with a little bit of knowledge and practice, you can avoid the worst mistakes and learn to iron effectively without burning anything.

The best way to make sure you never burn (or melt) your clothing or fabric while ironing is to always test the iron on an indiscreet location first. You can also use steam and a press cloth to help you get rid of stubborn wrinkles.

1. Know what fiber your fabric is made from

The process of ironing or pressing your clothing will be simplified immensely if you can identify what type of fiber your clothing was made from. If you got your fabric from a typical online or hobby store, this will be easy, since the fiber content should be included with the fabric information.

Now you can use your fiber type to determine the amount of heat your fabric can take. 

1. Polyester and acrylic materials need to be at the lowest heat settings. (tips for pressing this low-heat material)
2. Spandex can take slightly more heat than polyester.
3. Next, we have rayon/viscose, which is usually on the low-medium settings.
4. Silk is usually pretty similar to rayon, but can take slightly higher temperatures, in the medium range.
5. Wool can take temperatures in the higher end of medium.
6. Cotton can take quite a bit of heat, but you should still avoid the absolute highest settings.
7. Linen can take a lot of heat, so the highest settings on the iron are reserved for linen fabric.

If you’re dealing with a fabric blend that has more than one type of fiber, start on the setting for the lower-heat fiber. Use a scrap of fabric to then increase the heat and see how hot you can make the iron without burning or melting the fabric.

2. Use a press cloth to avoid burns

If you are working with a type of fabric that’s on the lower end of the heat scale, you may want to use a press cloth to help you iron your clothing and press the seams. A press cloth is a piece of cotton material that you place on top of your garment when you iron or press it. You can purchase a press cloth, or just use any scrap length of cotton you have on hand.

When you use a press cloth, you can turn the iron to a higher setting because the cotton cloth acts as a buffer between the iron and the garment or fabric underneath.

You don’t always need to use a press cloth with low-heat materials. It depends on how easily the fibers start to melt or burn, and how long you are keeping the iron in one spot. For example, you may need a press cloth when you are pressing seams, darts, or pleats flat (which will keep your iron in one place longer), but you don’t need one when you are ironing basic wrinkles.

3. Use steam effectively

Steam is another very effective tool you can use to help remove wrinkles or press seams. If all you need to do is de-wrinkle your clothes, you can even use a handheld steamer that generally makes the process much quicker than ironing. 

There is no risk that a steamer will burn or melt clothing. They are not all that expensive either. This is the one I recently purchased, and I’ve found the steamer so useful in my garment care routine.

Learn more about my experiment testing a steamer versus an iron

If you need to press seams or pleats, a handheld steamer is not going to do the trick. In this case, you’ll want to either get a steaming iron or use water and a press cloth to create steam.

1. Place the press cloth over your garment. 
2. Spray over the area you’re going to iron with water. You don’t want to completely soak it, but it’s okay to be generous with your spray bottle.
3. Heat up the iron and press the seam. You’ll immediately create steam that will help you create flatter seams.

4. Test-iron samples of fabric first

If at all possible, you’ll want to test your iron on a scrap piece of fabric first. Obviously, if you’re working on altering a garment, or you’re just learning how to iron for the first time, you might not have scraps available (in that case, check out my next tip for ironing clothing on the reverse side). If you do have any fabric scraps, don’t throw them away immediately.

You can easily use these to test the different temperatures of the iron. Try your iron at hotter and hotter temperatures to see where it will start to burn the fabric, and then cool it down just a little. This way, there is no risk of burning or melting your garment fabric at all.

5. Always iron on the “wrong side” of the fabric

Although it’s second nature to me now that I sew my own clothes, I did not always know you were supposed to iron clothes inside out. This simple step does wonders for protecting the outer side of the garment.

If you iron on the reverse side, there is a good chance that any burn or shiny melt marks don’t go all the way through the fabric. So if you mess up and overheat the fabric, you might not end up completely ruining the garment. 

I’ll still do some touch-ups on the right side after ironing inside out. But by then, I’ll have a pretty good idea that the temperature I’m working with is okay for the fabric. If it was going to burn, it would have already.

6. Do not keep the iron pressed on one spot

When ironing, make sure to keep the iron moving on your fabric or garment. The longer you keep it in one spot, the more likely it is to burn your material or start making synthetic fibers melt. 

This is easy to do when ironing large wrinkled areas, but it’s an equally important principle to keep in mind when pressing seams, darts, and pleats flat during the sewing process. Make sure to press and lift your iron from the fabric, so that it’s not in one place for too long.

• Learn more about the difference between ironing and pressing