Don’t Iron Your TableCloths

We used to serve on the fellowship committee at our church back in Arkansas.  It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of fuss over details that could make or break the effect of our table decor.  One such thing was tablecloths.  Those creases from the folds really bothered me (and the really nice but opinionated older ladies of the church).  No matter how we tried to fold them, there would still be little pinches of wrinkles in odd and sporadic places.  Then someone told me the trick of the pants hangers.

If you have a rectangular tablecloth just fold it evenly over a
sticky pants hanger -no clipping.  You may need to toss it for 10 mins or so with a
wet washcloth (and a dryer sheet to freshen it), but you should have no odd bunches of wrinkles anywhere.

Fold a circle or oval cloth into quarters and hang the tip in the clip on the pants hanger.  Balance the weight by putting one cloth in each clip of course.  The folds hang loosely enough to not crease, but the tip now has a large creasing/wrinkling/bunching problem.  But remember, this is the center of the cloth, so toss the whole thing in the dryer with a dryer sheet to freshen it up, throw your centerpiece on top of the wrinkled center and enjoy your party! 

Of course for most of our functions we’d use the cheap plastic throw away cloths.  Just because they’re cheap doesn’t mean they have to be thrown out.  It really bothered me to replace the cloths every month just because they were inexpensive. We saved the centerpieces, so I thought we could save the cloths too. When I once tried to save them for the next function, the creases from our imperfect folding skills and being stored on a shelf were ugly and not worthy of our cutely decorated tables.  So I tried the dryer.  My first attempt left me with very shrunk up and wrinkled cloths. But I persevered and found that if I tossed them in the dryer (I did 3 at a time) on low temp for just a few minutes, then furled them in the air a bit afterwards it would take all the creases out.  Straight to the tables they would go. It would leave a very uniform textured look over the whole tablecloth that was far less noticeable than those huge creases on even the brand new cloths were.  Finally, a frugal way to have a church party and still look nice!

For more great tips, you can visit my friend Pary Moppins.   Today she’s talking about Homemade Laundry Soap.