When my husband hauled some of his old felt baseball pennants out of storage recently, we discovered many of them had slid down in the box and developed all kind of wrinkles and creases. Lucky for him, a few creases and wrinkles don’t mean that the pennants are permanently ruined. With an iron and a bit of patience, it’s super easy to fix a crease in felt pennants, banners, and other felt items.
Supplies needed include an iron with adjustable setting, a work surface, and a damp wash cloth.
Before ironing the pennant, take a good look at the backing material. Newer pennants are backed with interfacing which looks like wispy white material. Older pennants either have a cotton backing (which looks like sheeting) or no backing at all. The reason the backing matters is because it will affect the settings of the iron. Cotton and wool felt can handle higher temperature settings on your iron whereas interfaced-backed pennants will melt if the iron is too hot.
Instructions
1. Flip the pennant “wrong side up” on your ironing board so that you are looking at the back (the reverse side) of the pennant or banner.
2. Preheat your iron at the lowest setting for interface backings or a medium setting for cotton or wool.
3. Place a damp, but well rung wash cloth on the back of the crease.
4. Place the iron on the wash cloth, iron gently until crease disappears.
5. The wrinkles in newer pennants will iron out after 30 seconds or so. For cotton and wool pennants or banners; if the temperature is too low to remove the creases, increase the iron temperature by a notch and repeat until the wrinkles relax.
This simple method will remove creases and wrinkles in most felt banners and pennants. If your pennant is a valuable older one or highly collectible, do not try ironing out the wrinkles yourself but leave the job to the professionals instead.
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