Cleaning material pre-work

[Andrew Breecher]

You could do what's called the "London shrink" - dampen a sheet or other large cotton cloth, then lay it on top of your wool and roll them together. Leave them for a day, then unwrap them and press the wool dry with an iron. A quicker method would be to simply iron the wool with a generous steam iron.

Even if you plan to only dry clean the items once they're finished, you should still pre-shrink them to some extent. What if you're caught out in the rain and your clothing gets wet?

[Mikilt]

You could do what's called the "London shrink" - dampen a sheet or other large cotton cloth, then lay it on top of your wool and roll them together. Leave them for a day, then unwrap them and press the wool dry with an iron. A quicker method would be to simply iron the wool with a generous steam iron.

Even if you plan to only dry clean the items once they're finished, you should still pre-shrink them to some extent. What if you're caught out in the rain and your clothing gets wet?

Indeed! Very good point, sir. It will take a while to do nearly 7 yards on a 4' ironing board.

[Andrew Breecher]

Indeed! Very good point, sir. It will take a while to do nearly 7 yards on a 4' ironing board.

It sure will. This is a labour of love!

[Mikilt]

All,
Thank you for all your input. I am new at this and I am unsure of things.

As long as I air dry it, will it work to machine wash it on Wool setting? Will I still need to iron?

[Andrew Breecher]

If you wash it, you'll need to iron it in order to get the wrinkles out. Even if you hang dry it, you'll need to iron it to get the wrinkles out. Even if you don't wash it at all, you'll probably want to iron it. A blast of steam will help it a great deal. Apart from my needles, my iron is the piece of equipment used most in tailoring.

If you have a spare piece of plywood, or a smooth hollow-core door you can lay over some sawhorses, or on your dining room table, you can put a piece of canvas or cotton twill over it, and then iron right on that. It will save a lot of time and give you better results than using a small ironing board.

[Mikilt]

I wound up steaming it carefully with a garment steamer. Hopefully this does the trick.