Can I avoid ironing rayon fabric?

Slinky_Malinky

Hi folks,

I have seen a couple of nice summer dresses that I would like to buy to wear to work, but they are made from rayon. Googling suggests dry cleaning or cool wash then iron inside out and that the fabric creases badly.

I normally wear wear trousers with a loose top made from viscose/elastine and can get away with drying these on a hanger and not ironing.

Please do any of you OS gurus have any advice on drying these dresses so that I could avoid the ironing stage? I was thinking of cool gentle wash cycle and perhaps minimal or no spin then drip dry on a hanger.

I know if I buy them and they need ironing I will end up just not wearing them.....in which case I would rather know up front and not waste my hard earned cash.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Slinky_Malinky

p.s. Anyone else finding it really hard to buy nice summer dresses? The styles in the shops are awful especially for a larger lady of short stature.

Fruball

I iron virtually nothing! This means I buy clothes which look like the won't need ironing.

If rayon is really that bad, but you love the dresses, you might have to just iron them... Failing that you could try the cool wash and straight onto a hanger to drip dry but better to dry flat after smoothing out if it is wet and heavy so you don't stretch the fabric.

My clothes that most people would iron, are smoothed out after spinning either on a hanger or on the bed until they look less wrinkled, then up on a hanger in the airing cupboard.

I don't think I have used my iron this year

Seakay

It really depends on the weight of the fabric how well it will drip dry to avoid the need to iron.
I've had a modal top (which is basically rayon in that it's made from cellulose etc) which was like a heavy silk and which drip dried well.
If the fabric will not drip dry smooth then the other option you could consider is to make it look deliberately creased ie when wet you twist the dress down the length into one 'sausage' so that when you relax the tension of holding the length from neck to hem taut as you twist, then it will twist around on itself. let it dry like this.
I had a scarf and a skirt that were designed to have this done. When dry you untwisted them and they had parallel creases all over like very relaxed pleats or unstitched smocking.
I'd suggest getting one dress to start with and seeing how all the options work for you.

Slinky_Malinky

Thanks very much to both of you for your replies.

I will try the drip dry and if it does not work, I am liking the idea of deliberate creases (aka throttling the dress into submission)

pigpen

As a non-ironer... don't waste your money.. it will need de-creasing it is evil fabric!!

I got a few maxi (calf length on the catalogue giraffes) dresses.. jersey fabric and I believe the other 4 are viscose... and they are washed.. immediately hung to dry but anything that thinks it might need de-creasing is not coming in my front door.

Seakay

here's another method to form deliberate crinkles
http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/crinkle-skirt-care.html

charlies-aunt

I have a few rayon things - they drip dry fine and can even be tumbled dry on low heat whilst still damp. I tend to pop a bit of fabric conditioner on an old, clean flannel and chuck that in - which seems to help. Any remaining creases will drop out with body heat once the garment is worn

I think that the dry cleaning labels get stitched on all garments nowadays, regardless of whether a fabric is machine washable or not because its popular with retailers - providing them with a useful get-out for if a garment shrinks, loses colour, bobbles quickly etc in the wash

I am guilty of home washing everything! One of the joys of hand-me-downs and CS buys is that they tend to have been worn and washed a few times already before I acquire them so I don't get too many disasters