There’s an old hostess trick for quickly de-wrinkling a tablecloth without using an iron: Put the tablecloth on the table, spritz it with water from a spray bottle, run your hands over the fabric to smooth it and then give it a tug to pull it taut. As it dries, wrinkles and folds in the tablecloth will naturally ease out.
Even if you’re not regularly hosting the kind of events that call for a linen tablecloth, the trick is a handy one to know about. It’s even handier to know about when the same technique is applied to something most of us do use regularly: a duvet cover, sheets and pillowcases.
If you’re a person who likes the look of pressed bed linens but hates to iron, this technique will change the way you make your bed —?literally.
Instead of spending a lot of time and energy to press or steam a wrinkled duvet cover, simply put it on the bed, spritz it with water from a spray bottle and pull it taut. Just like with tablecloths, as the duvet cover dries, the wrinkles will work themselves out of the fabric. Trigger-style spray bottles work best for misting a wide swath of fabric.
Slept-on bed linens, too, will benefit from this sort of light misting. With just a few sprays of a spray bottle, pillowcases that have become deeply wrinkled while being slept on will look as if they were just ironed.
Tap water and a spray bottle is all that’s required to perform this operation, but people who like scents can add the fragrance of their choice. Essential oils are typically used to add a scent to linen water; DIY linen spray is also a great way to use up perfume samples.
Prefabricated linen sprays are also available in a wide variety of scents. Lavender is popular for use on bedding because of its relaxing properties. Regardless of what notes you choose, scented linen spray performs double duty by de-wrinkling and adding an ever-so-slight fragrance to your sheets that freshens them up between washing.
