National Clothesline

Presentation and preservation are the basis of quality work. Your pressers do the best work. You personally see to it. You put quality first and production second. Every garment is inspected after cleaning for spots and after pressing to ensure perfect work.

But what happens after that? That is where all those efforts usually fail: proper placement on the hanger, shoulders of coats drooping, shoulders of golf shirts pointing upward, sleeves of coat dipping inward, bodice of dresses concave instead of full, sleeves of dresses dipping inward, etc.

What’s the use of doing an excellent press job of finishing if that job is not preserved and presented appealingly? There are many accessory items available from your distributor that do the job well, but are they being used?

First and most important, due to their 50 percent-plus portion of volume, are pants and slacks. Pants and slacks seem to be the biggest problem since improper positioning on the guarded hanger after perfect finishing will destroy that perfection. After the two legs have been pressed and are placed together on the buck, the guarded hanger should be held in your left hand and placed over the legs from right to left and picked up as the hanger meets the area an inch or two from the crotch. This should place the legs about six inches to seven inches below the waistband.

An exception to this rule is when the pants are either lined at the waist to crotch area or fully lined. In those cases it may be difficult to get the legs to hang more than a few inches below the waistband. Therefore, you may need to place a clip pinched over each end of the legs just below the pants hanger bar.

Very large size pants could be placed onto a drapery hanger with tube attached and a clip pinched over each end of the legs just below the pants hanger bar. If only moderately large size pants, they could be placed over a “super strut” which is at least 18 inches wide and made from heavier wire. I like the collar shape super strut, which can hold a man’s suit coat without shifting from side-to-side.

How many pants should be placed into a plastic bag? Fortunately, more than one pair is all right provided each pair of pants hangs properly on its hanger. I would say no more than three. With the cost of plastic rising due to oil costs, at least two to a bag is recommended. NEVER have the upper top area showing on the hanger; the legs look much better.

A very important area of a suit coat, sport coat and overcoat is the collar and shoulder. It is a fallacy to believe that the collar should be rolled since it definitely should be creased and shrunk to hug the wearer’s neck.

Why do clothing manufacturers crease the collars and carry the crease down through the gorge seam (1 1é2 inches) to maintain the proper lapel break?

As a finishing instructor at IFI, I stressed the shrinking of the coat collar by pressing it and carrying the crease down beyond the gorge seam. Then I insisted that the lapels be firmly pressed on both sides as a roll from about 1 1é2 inches below the gorge seam to about one inch above the top button and button hole.

To ensure the lapels would lie flat, rather than protruding up, they were lightly hand creased to a point 1 inch above the top button and button hole.

The coat should be placed over a collar shape suit hanger after it has been properly pressed and sent to inspection and assembly for packaging and presentation. To preserve the properly pressed lapels and collar/shoulder area, a plastic shoulder guard should be placed over a suit hanger to give the collar and shoulder area enough support and to enhance the coat’s presentation. Also, some tissue paper to keep the upper sleeve area from caving in should be applied.

Concerning the sleeves, they should be “shaped” and not round. This is accomplished during the air drying cycles on the steam-air form finisher with the sleeve expanders inserted. But the average finisher will yank the sleeve expanders out after the drying cycle is completed and give the sleeves a “bell bottom” look.

At IFI, I taught students to insert the sleeve expanders, under tension, to a point just below the arm hole, and to remove the sleeve expanders by compressing them. The compressed sleeve expanders will avoid the bell bottom cuffs, pulling down the lining below the bottom of the cuffs and the rolled look of the bottom rather than a light creased look.

After removal of the sleeve expanders, both hands should be formed into a “U” shape and compressed against the finished sleeves and run down to the cuffs.

Note: Proper finishing of the suit coat and sport coat was covered in my National Clothesline series on proper garment finishing (May 2003 to November 2003).

To make a good presentation, the complete suit should be placed on the super strut as described above. A hanger cover is an option, but a lapel holder is recommended to prevent unwanted creases in front as well as destruction of the lapel break due to shifting while on the conveyor or from customer handling out of the customer service area.

Only one suit should be placed into a bag, however, due to the higher cost of the plastic, a single pair of pants can be placed behind the suit in the same bag.

A bust form is an excellent device to preserve the bodice area of a dress and blouse. Since sleeves are to be rolled, tissue paper should be placed into them to prevent dipping and creasing. A hanger guard and hanger cover are recommended if no bust form is used although the bust form is the better choice for presentation as well as for preservation.

Use a collar stiffener for a stand-up collar and never crease the collar.

Here also, only one dress or blouse should be placed into the bag.

Individual tie holders and tie bags make a good presentation. Always show the wide end. Make sure that the ends are not creased; they should be rolled.

Here we come to the worst offenders of all. In spite of the low profitability of laundered shirts and blouses, they are of utmost importance to operators serving upper income customers and modest salaried clerical workers. And poor quality finishing, together with incomplete packaging for presentation and preservation, can almost destroy the demand for one’s more profitable drycleaning services.

The collar must be creased and “formed” properly in order to hide the under side of the collar and prevent dipping of the center of the collar. Both ends of the collar must be smooth and firm as well as the center portion.

I have noticed that some operators have collar/cuff presses that are not truly in-line at the collar buck, and the collars are pressed more firmly on one side than the other side. A little buildup of padding/flannel on the lighter pressure side can usually overcome this problem, which is due to excessive wear and “old age” of the pressing machine.

The forming of the collar is performed on a heated collar former with the collar sitting tightly against the cone for at least 40 seconds. A two-operator unit should have a triple-head heated collar former, and a single-operator unit should have at least one heated collar former.

The collar button is buttoned by the shirt presser, and the second and fourth buttons should be buttoned by the inspector/assembly person. Most operators button the third button instead of the second button, and this procedure forms a bulge in the front button strip rather than making the front button strip lie flat.

Next, a collar support should be inserted into the collar to cause it to stand up and appear round rather than lie flat and appear squared.

If the shirt has been processed as “no starch,” the collar and front buttonhole strip will lose its shape and appearance no matter what device is used and especially if the shirt is on a hanger.

Therefore, a little starch in the shirt, especially in the collar and front buttonhole strip, will greatly enhance its appearance while being easier to handle in finishing. This is the reason for shirt manufacturers using sizing in their collars and front buttonhole strips: presentation and preservation.

After checking all buttons on the shirt or blouse, the two sleeve cuffs should be joined together with clips to avoid being wrapped around the shirt when bagged. Here again: presentation as well as preservation.

Note: With all the static about gender pricing of blouses, you will need to finish the severely form-fitted blouses on a small mushroom hot head press with hand touchup, so make sure you have an all-steam iron and water gun attached.

Get enough money for your shirts and blouses so you can put no more than three to a bag, and make sure that they are joined loosely at the collars to avoid crushing.

Note: When I assembled clothes in my early years in my father’s plant, I would cross the “twist-tie” and insert my forefinger into the loop while twisting the wire a couple of times. This kept the collars apart from each other.

Many years ago one of the smartest engineer/consultants in this industry proved to me that you can process many more small orders than big ones. This person was Cecil Ellrod, the father of unit finishing and efficient work flow.

I considered myself the fastest assembler around, but Cecil showed me how to be even faster and more accurate. He took about ten small orders and assembled them much faster than I could assemble three large orders.

His system was a five-piece, giant numbered strip tag. Each strip had a master tag plus five individual tags, making the order no more than five pieces. A single piece order had a specially printed #1 tag with a #1 master tag.

A large order took more time to check for completion as each piece was hung, it was over-burdened with bulk, it took more time to double-check at bagging, it took more time to bag and it was too cumbersome to be filed in the customer service area. The customer could get a hernia carrying it out to the car.

The small order could be checked by “eyeballing’ the number of hangers in the slot compared to the number of pieces in the order.

Note: A good tip for an assembler is to repeat the tag number softly to her/himself since no two numbers sound alike but could look alike. Also, check the vision of your assembler since she/he may need reading glasses and not realize it.

No matter what system of assembly you use, 100 piece lot or “no waste,” keep the order small. If the customer has more than five pieces, prepare another invoice and handle both orders as if they were brought in by two separate persons. Remember, a little more time on the receiving end will save lots of time and efficiency on the delivery end.

Note: My spotting video, “The Caplan Method of Stain Removal,” which includes my comprehensive text (edited by Hal Horning) and handy spotting board reference, is available in English, Spanish and Korean (video only). A special disc for South American DVD equipment is also available. A lecture and demonstration are presented similar to my classes over the years at IFI and SDA schools. This video, text and spotting board reference are ideal for training inexperienced spotters as well as a good review for experienced spotters. Digesting, bleaching, oxidized oil stains and caramelized sugar stains are discussed completely. An article on “Removing Spots in the Cleaning Machine” for perc and hydrocarbon solvents is included in the text.

Also available is my video on step-by-step shirt finishing which includes my comprehensive text in loose-leaf form outlining each procedure for single-operator and two-operator cabinet shirt unit using a cabinet sleeve press. Proper forming of the collar using heated collar formers is demonstrated. Each lay is demonstrated for top quality and production with very little effort. Attractive detailing and packaging of the hung shirt, padding, steam pressures and timing are all discussed. A unique wash formula for whiter whites and brighter colors and removal of grease and oils is included in the textbook.