Fold a Shirt
Folding shirts properly is a great way keep them nice and tidy and help save space in your dresser. This article will show you different ways of folding a shirt.
Contents
10 Second Summary
1. Lay the shirt face-down and smooth it out.
2. Fold the right side one-third of the way towards the center.
3. Fold the sleeve down and align it with the edge.
4. Repeat on the left side.
5. Fold the bottom up by a few inches.
6. Fold the bottom again, up to the collar.
7. Turn the shirt over.
Steps
Traditional Dress-Shirt Fold
- Button the top button and the third button.
- Lay the shirt face-down on the folding surface. You should be looking at the back of your shirt.
- Smooth out any puckers or wrinkles, so the shirt is flat front and back.
- Fold the right side first. Fold about one-third of the body toward the center of the shirt. The fold line starts at the center of the shoulder and ends at the tail. You should see the back of your shirt with about one-third of the front folded to the back.
- Neatly fold the sleeve forward, creating an angled fold at the shoulder. The sleeve should line up with the edge of the first body fold.
- Fold the left side in the same manner.
- Make a fold of several inches of the shirt tail.
- Fold up the bottom half of the partially folded shirt. The tail should be just behind the collar of the shirt now.
- Turn the entire shirt over. You should have a neatly folded shirt as you typically see at a professional laundry or clothing store.
Japanese Quick Fold
- Lay out the shirt. Lay the shirt out horizontally in front of you, face-up. The neck of the shirt should be to your left.
- Pinch the shoulder. On the far side of the shirt, grasp the shirt with your left hand at the top of the shoulder, halfway between the sleeve and the neck.
- Pinch the midsection. On that same side, grasp the shirt with your right hand halfway down the shirt (think of this as the point where the bottom fold would be on a store-bough shirt). Your right hand should be parallel with your left hand.
- Make sure that you have pinched through both layers of fabric.
- Fold the shirt over. Still pinching the shirt with both hands, cross your left hand over your right hand so that the shoulder of the shirt goes down to the hem. Pinch the hem and the shoulder together with your left hand.
- Your arms should now be crossed.
- Uncross your arms. Lift the shirt up as you uncross your arms, keeping your grasp on the shirt with both arms. Pull the shirt taut with both hands and shake out and creases.
- Fold the remainder of the shirt. Holding the shirt up, lay it so that the front portion of the unfolded sleeve is touching the ground, up to the equivalent position where it is folded on the other side.
- Lay the shirt down. Lower the rest of the shirt so that the fold is complete and the front of the shirt is facing up.
Keeping Away Wrinkles
- Use the permanent press cycle. This dryer cycle will allow your clothes to cool while they are still moving, preventing wrinkles from forming. Clothes are most likely to wrinkle while they are warm, so cooling them when they can't form wrinkles is best.
- Always starch your shirts before folding. If you really want to keep your shirts from wrinkling after you fold them, starch and iron your shirts before folding.
- Don't pack shirts too tightly. When you put away folded shirts, don't pack them in too tightly. This is more likely to wrinkle them.
Tips
- You may use a flat rectangular cardboard template (or something similar, such as a magazine) that is sized to fit between the left and right body folds. This keeps your shirts uniformly folded. Place the template on your shirt after it is face down. Finish folding. You can slide the cardboard out after the final step.
- Folding incorrectly can lead to wrinkles and creases in the wrong places! Be careful!
- Properly folded shirts travel better and need less touch-up pressing.
Warnings
- Start with a clean, pressed shirt.
