by Roselyn Lionhart

Created on: April 17, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I hate to iron. I refused to even own an iron until my kids got into high school and didn't care for the wrinkled look that the "no iron" fabrics left. They got an iron and an ironing board from a second hand store and asked me to show them how to iron. It figures.

I learned how to iron when I was nine or ten. I started on pillowcases and sheets (yes folks used to iron sheets)!

I was chastised if there was as much as a crinkle. The tiniest fold was sponged or sprinkled with water and I was told to iron it again.

Then I graduated to my stepfather's factory work uniforms. Did you know that people who worked in factories used to wear ironed uniforms? When I was sufficiently adept at work clothes I was graduated to white starched shirts. By Jr. High school I could have worked for a laundry.

In ninth grade, all the girls were required to take Home Ec which taught us to sew and cook, in which I was already as proficient as I was at ironing. First we had to make a "Little House on the Prairie" type apron which had a bib in front like overalls do and wrapped half way around ones waist. I don't think I ever wore it.

Our next project was a skirt and I figured I would make a gathered skirt because there was very little sewing and no fitting to do and the hardest thing would be the zipper.

We were warned to pre-shrink our fabric and iron it before we brought it to school. I picked light blue denim and put it carefully in our washing machine even though my mother (a professional seamstress at the time) said it was silly to pre-shrink a pre-shrunk fabric. I explained that our teacher was a stickler for obeying her orders and if she said pre-shrink it, I was going to pre-shrink it. I took it out of the washing machine and meticulously ironed it dry being carefully not to make any "cat's eyes" as those little folds in ironing were sometimes called. I folded up my material and took it to school the next day in the bag I had purchased it in so it would not get dirty or wrinkled.

I pulled the three yards of denim out of the bag and started to lay it out on the table so that I could cut off the waist band when Miss Miller grabbed my material from my hands and snarled, "I told you to pre-shrink that material!"

"I did!" I protested.

"Don't lie to me!" she stormed. "I can tell that this material has never been washed and ironed!" Then she marched over to the sink and threw my material in and turned on the hot water.

I was in shock for about thirty seconds and then I ran from the room and

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>