Getting new drapes can be exciting. You’ve daydreamed about how they would transform the room and have finally convinced yourself to get the ones you’ve had your eyes on for a while. Once you finally get them delivered or bring them home with you, you eagerly unpack them, but darn, packing creases!
You can get wrinkles out of new curtains without ironing by hanging them up and spraying water on them. You can also use a wrinkle-release product or make your own by mixing water and white vinegar. Hanging the curtains in a steamed room before installing them may work too.
If packing creases annoy you as much as they annoy me, and if you’re as lazy as I am to iron them out, you’ve come to the right place. This article provides a list of things you could do to get the wrinkles out of your drapes without ironing them. If you’d like to know more, keep reading.
1. Target-Treat the Wrinkles
Few things are more annoying than unpacking a new set of drapes only to find them riddled with deep-seated packing creases. Naturally, you’ll have to remove them or live with wrinkled drapes.
To perform this trick, take the following steps:
- Hang up your drapes.
- While they hang, stretch them out and work in sections.
- Using a sprayer with plain water, spray the affected areas while ensuring to spray directly over the wrinkles.
The moisture plus the weight of the drapes may be enough to stretch the fabric and smooth out the creases as they dry.
2. Use a Wrinkle-Release Product
Using a wrinkle-release product might be the hack you need to rid your drapes of those unsightly packing creases. Downy Wrinkle Releaser Fabric Spray does a great job of doing this and multi-tasks as a static remover, odor eliminator, fabric freshener, and ironing aid–not that you’ll be doing any ironing.
Like the target treatment with plain water described in the previous section, all you need to do is generously spray the wrinkle-release product over the creases and let chemistry do the rest. When the drapes are dry, not only will you be rid of the pesky creases, but you will also end up with great-smelling drapes.
3. Use a Fabric Steamer
Using a fabric steamer is like ironing–but not exactly. It’s definitely less work compared to traditional ironing. So, if you have a fabric steamer, here’s what to do:
- Power up the fabric steamer- make sure to refill the water first, of course.
- Aim the steam at the creases and work your way from top to bottom. It helps if you stretch the fabric as you go.
If you have long drapes and several sets to de-wrinkle, you may want to manage your hopes of getting away with bare minimum effort. Using a steamer may take some patience, especially if you have really stubborn creases, but it does a great job.
4. Hang the Curtains in a Steamed Room
If you want to leverage science and use the magic of steam without applying manual labor, you could give this hack a shot. You’ll need to hang your drapes over your shower curtain rods to do this.
To create a steam room, close all doors and windows, then run the hot water for ten minutes. Much like the fabric steamer, the moisture absorbed by the drapes and the weight of the curtain stretches the wrinkles as your curtains dry.
5. Mix Your Own Solution
This trick is number 5 on this list for a reason. If you’d like to give it a try, do it before you opt for the next option; washing. Allow me to explain.
This solution involves a solution of water and white vinegar. Yes, vinegar. To make the solution:
- Mix one-part water with one-part vinegar and pour it into a sprayer.
- Spray over the creases like you would any wrinkle-release solution.
Most people’s objections to this trick are understandable. After all, no one wants vinegar-scented drapes. Those who use this trick that sounds like it came from our ancestors swear that the vinegar smell goes away. If that turns out to be false information, and your drapes end up smelling like vinegar, then proceed with the next how-to on this list; wash the drapes.
6. Wash the Drapes on a Short Cycle
Washing your new curtains to get rid of wrinkles sounds counterintuitive but hear me out. Getting the fabric wet softens up those deep packing creases.
But don’t all fabrics come out of the machine with wrinkles? Yes, they do. Thus the instruction to wash them on a short cycle.
Short cycles don’t create as many wrinkles. A short cycle on a delicate setting will undoubtedly bring about an improvement on those packing creases. Whatever wrinkles your drapes will have when they emerge from the washer will not be as prominent as the packing creases.
7. Include a Damp Towel in the Dryer
When you run your drapes through the dryer, include a damp towel or several. The moisture helps retard wrinkle formation while the presence of the towels physically prevents the curtain from coiling up into itself to create new wrinkles.
Hang your curtains up after taking them out of the dryer. If you feel like going the extra mile, you can also give them a spritz of the Downy wrinkle-release spray as added wrinkle prevention.
8. Put Ice Cubes in the Dryer
You might have already heard about the ice cube trick. Instead of towels, you could opt for some ice cubes. They work using the same principle as the damp towels; the moisture helps to prevent the formation of new wrinkles. However, ice cubes won’t provide a physical barrier to prevent the drapes from coiling into themselves.
If you think ice cubes will work, then you could give them a go. Still, there’s no reason you can’t also toss in a towel to keep your drapes from getting too twisted up.
This brings us to the next step.
9. Air Dry the Drapes Instead of Using a Dryer
This step completes the washer hack in the previous section.
After washing your drapes, you could air dry them instead of putting them through the dryer. And by the same powers that make target treating and using a wrinkle-release spray work, air drying will reduce the appearance of creases on your drapes.
If you don’t feel all that confident about air drying, you could go the extra mile by spraying some wrinkle-release solution on it. If the wrinkle release works on dry fabric, it should have no problem working its magic on fresh-out-of-the-washer fabric, which would be more compliant than dry, creased fabric.
10. Opt for Professional Drapery Service
If you neither have the time nor the patience to attempt any of the aforementioned tricks, you could always try the trick that rules them all. Have them brought to a professional drapery cleaning service. You can drop them off while running errands
When you pick up your curtains, they’ll be clean and wrinkle-free. The typical fee for professional drapery services is around $1 to $5 for every foot of fabric.
Final Thoughts
You can remove wrinkles or packing creases from new curtains by spraying plain water over the wrinkles. However, plain water doesn’t always do the trick. Other alternatives are a DIY water-vinegar solution or store-bought wrinkle-release spray. Fabric steaming could also work, although it may take more time and effort.
