Know More about Dry Cleaning: Celebrate National Button Day Learning about Men’s Shirts
We do A LOT of men’s shirts here at the dry cleaners. It is a major part of each day’s workload, and yet a lot of our customers are not sure why we have two different ways of handling these garments. We have
· Standard laundering and pressing, and
· Hand finishing
As many know, one is less expensive than the other. What many don’t know is how we determine which treatment is best for the shirt.
Laundering, Dry Cleaning, Hand Finishing or Machine Finished?
We always look at the care labels to help us decide how to treat a garment. This is the key factor in helping us send a shirt through the proper process. For instance, the bulk of shirts can be machine washed and dried. However, that does not remove wrinkles or get the shirt ready to be worn. In fact, a machine washed and dried shirt looks like it may have been crumpled up into a ball rather than put on a hanger.
All shirts need some sort of finishing treatment.
And why would a shirt need dry cleaning? It always boils down to the materials. Shirts using performance materials, finer or more delicate materials such as linen or silk, and those that specifically say “Dry Clean Only,” are always run through our eco-friendly dry cleaning system before being finished.
Finishing a Man’s Shirt
Any men’s shirt benefits from pressing or finishing as this process will help to set in the pleats and other shaping, get the collar in pristine shape, and ensure that cuffs are sharp and crisp. Even when a shirt doesn’t have heavy detailing or structure, such as a silk shirt by a brand like Tommy Bahama, it benefits from the use of finishing to make it wear and look its very best.
Many shirts are just fine when run through the automated process. However, when a shirt’s care label specifically says it needs to “hang dry” or be treated with a “cool iron,” it is an ideal candidate for hand finishing.
So, what is the difference between pressing and finishing? It’s actually simple – the first (pressing) is done by specialty machine presses in the shop. These remove most of the hard work that ironing and hand finishing a shirt requires. Instead, the shirt is mounted to a system that does all the ironing and steaming in minutes. Hand finishing, on the other hand, is just as it sounds, and is done entirely by hand using a large ironing board-like machine and a hand-held iron.
Here at Oak Hill Dry Cleaners we also “touch up” any shirt that is done through the press, as we want to guarantee that your shirts look their very best regardless of the process used to clean and finish them. This ensures that the cuffs, collars and the button placket is crisp and looks good.
The Problem with Buttons
With the mention of the button placket, we must look at the reason why some shirts that might otherwise head to the laundering and machine finishing process end up hand finished. It has to do with their buttons.
Since today is National Button Day, it is an ideal time to learn about men’s shirts and their wide variety of buttons.
Top-quality shirts and garments often use buttons made from natural materials. They might also use much thicker or extremely thin buttons. In all such instances, the materials may crack, break, or become extremely brittle if exposed to the high heat of the automated presses. With larger buttons on garments like sweaters and jackets, our team takes the time to hand wrap the buttons to keep them safe. However, with men’s shirts, we can see right away if they are going to face challenges in the presses and we send them to be hand-finished, instead. Should any premium button be damaged during handling in our shop, we’ll do all we can to track down the brand-name replacement.
Less costly garments may use buttons that crack or even melt in the presses. We will always replace damaged buttons for free during the finishing process, and if our sharp-eyed team misses one, you need only point that out and we’ll replace standard buttons as part of the cleaning.
We have even tracked down the right buttons for a few shirts that were stripped of them by a new puppy in the house. We couldn’t save a few of the cuffs, but we did get the shirts back into a wearable condition!
We Love Buttons
As we said, today is National Button Day and that means it is a great time to learn more about these everyday and yet completely fascinating little fasteners. As one expert said, they were once “simply ornamental in nature, the button as a means to fasten clothes has been around since 13th century Germany. Since then, a wide variety of materials like wood, clay, shells, and plastic have been used to make buttons in every size, shape, and color.”
National Button Day activities can include upcycling with buttons by taking premium buttons from unworn garments and putting them on a garment you still wear. You can be eco-friendly and fashionable in one swoop! You can start a button jar by snipping buttons from your unused garments or even head to thrift shops to find items with great buttons (but not a lot of fashion appeal) and add those to the jar. You can use the buttons when necessary, or just create an eye-catching and visually appealing artwork for a shelf or windowsill!
You can do an amazing number of crafts with old and new buttons, and many people have found an active market for them online. They buy old garments or old button boxes and then put together sets of matching buttons to sell to collectors or crafters!
Whether you take up some sort of hobby using buttons, or just use what you learned here to better understand your options at Oak Hill Dry Cleaners, we hope you have enjoyed the information! Remember, we can do all kinds of alterations and repairs (including replacing lost buttons) for your shirts and any other garments. Just get in touch today to find out more!
Source
https://www.diyncrafts.com/14517/repurpose/26-innovative-and-beautiful-button-crafts-and-projects