Ironing a shirt is one of those things ― like perfectly cooking rice, or doing a push-up ― that sounds easy but can be surprisingly hard to perfect.
Personally, I always end up pressing a concertina-like line midway across the back of the shirt whenever I move it across the board. I’ve tried everything; it never doesn’t happen.
Thankfully, though, a TikTok from @dailyoriginalvids has ensured my collars won’t endure the same fate.
They recently revealed a secret function of some irons ― and it’s proof the gap between some irons’ plates and the rest of their body doesn’t have to remain decorative.
What’s the secret?
In their video, they ran the tip and edge of a shirt collar between the iron’s hot plate and its body.
It had a similar effect to using a straightener on the area, which some Redditors have sworn by for years.
Though the iron’s groove doesn’t cover the entire width of the collar, it does a beautiful job of giving the tip of the fabric a sharp, crisp, almost starched look.
And @rawdenimenthusiast revealed on his Instagram page that the hack doesn’t just extend to regular shirt collars ― you can use it on T-shirt necks, too.
“Say goodbye to wrinkled collars,” he wrote, scooping the iron’s gap along his T-shirt’s topmost section.
People were fans of the trick
Though we couldn’t find any evidence manufacturers intended the iron plate gap to be used for collars,TikTokers were still pretty into the hack.
“I’m 58 and had no idea,” one commenter wrote.
“Make sure the slot is clean or you’ll have a mark,” another shared (yup, having tried this trick, I strongly recommend getting in there with a cotton bud first).
“I just went to check my iron and I’ll be darned... Learn something every day,” yet another app user opined.