Garment Pressers

Key Responsibilities

• Finish velvet garments by steaming them on bucks of hot-head presses or steam tables, and brushing pile (nap) with handbrushes.
• Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles.
• Brush materials made of suede, leather, or felt to remove spots or to raise and smooth naps.
• Spray water over fabric to soften fibers when not using steam irons.
• Straighten, smooth, or shape materials to prepare them for pressing.
• Use covering cloths to prevent equipment from damaging delicate fabrics.
• Push and pull irons over surfaces of articles to smooth or shape them.
• Finish pleated garments, determining sizes of pleats from evidence of old pleats or from work orders, using machine presses or hand irons.
• Select appropriate pressing machines, based on garment properties such as heat tolerance.
• Shrink, stretch, or block articles by hand to conform to original measurements, using forms, blocks, and steam.
• Slide material back and forth over heated, metal, ball-shaped forms to smooth and press portions of garments that cannot be satisfactorily pressed with flat pressers or hand irons.
• Remove finished pieces from pressing machines and hang or stack them for cooling, or forward them for additional processing.
• Identify and treat spots on garments.
• Moisten materials to soften and smooth them.
• Block or shape knitted garments after cleaning.
• Measure fabric to specifications, cut uneven edges with shears, fold material, and press it with an iron to form a heading.
• Press ties on small pressing machines.
• Hang, fold, package, and tag finished articles for delivery to customers.
• Examine and measure finished articles to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as tape measures and micrometers.
• Position materials such as cloth garments, felt, or straw on tables, dies, or feeding mechanisms of pressing machines, or on ironing boards or work tables.
• Finish fancy garments such as evening gowns and costumes, using hand irons to produce high quality finishes.
• Lower irons, rams, or pressing heads of machines into position over material to be pressed.
• Clean and maintain pressing machines, using cleaning solutions and lubricants.
• Activate and adjust machine controls to regulate temperature and pressure of rollers, ironing shoes, or plates, according to specifications.
• Insert heated metal forms into ties and touch up rough places with hand irons.
• Sew ends of new material to leaders or to ends of material in pressing machines, using sewing machines.
• Finish pants, jackets, shirts, skirts and other dry-cleaned and laundered articles, using hand irons.
• Select, install, and adjust machine components, including pressing forms, rollers, and guides, using hoists and hand tools.