Home >> Career Search

Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials

Tasks

Core Tasks Include:

Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles.
Lower irons, rams, or pressing heads of machines into position over material to be pressed.
Remove finished pieces from pressing machines and hang or stack them for cooling, or forward them for additional processing.
Hang, fold, package, and tag finished articles for delivery to customers.
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.
Select appropriate pressing machines, based on garment properties such as heat tolerance.
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.
Straighten, smooth, or shape materials to prepare them for pressing.
Finish pants, jackets, shirts, skirts and other dry-cleaned and laundered articles, using hand irons.
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.
Spray water over fabric to soften fibers when not using steam irons.
Moisten materials to soften and smooth them.
Finish fancy garments such as evening gowns and costumes, using hand irons to produce high quality finishes.
Activate and adjust machine controls to regulate temperature and pressure of rollers, ironing shoes, or plates, according to specifications.
Shrink, stretch, or block articles by hand to conform to original measurements, using forms, blocks, and steam.
Clean and maintain pressing machines, using cleaning solutions and lubricants.
Block or shape knitted garments after cleaning.
Press ties on small pressing machines.
Identify and treat spots on garments.

Supplemental Tasks Include:

Finish velvet garments by steaming them on bucks of hot-head presses or steam tables, and brushing pile (nap) with handbrushes.
Insert heated metal forms into ties and touch up rough places with hand irons.
Brush materials made of suede, leather, or felt to remove spots or to raise and smooth naps.
Use covering cloths to prevent equipment from damaging delicate fabrics.
Select, install, and adjust machine components, including pressing forms, rollers, and guides, using hoists and hand tools.
Examine and measure finished articles to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as tape measures and micrometers.
Sew ends of new material to leaders or to ends of material in pressing machines, using sewing machines.
Measure fabric to specifications, cut uneven edges with shears, fold material, and press it with an iron to form a heading.

The data sources for the information displayed here include: O*NET™. (Using onet28)