Yesterday I was very excited to appear on Studio 10 which airs daily on the Ten Network. The session was about wrapping unusually shaped objects to make them look fabulous. How could I possibly anticipate that the star of the segment would turn out to be a wrinkled ribbon? Who knew?

I was fortunate enough to work at the desk with two of the lovely panellists – Natarsha Belling and Denise Drysdale, who, as it turns out knows a thing or two about her ribbons. After spying a scrunkled ribbon, Denise shared her tip for straightening out the wrinkles.

Most of us would go for the iron – hopefully on an appropriate heat setting for the particular ribbon and secondly under a sheet of baking or brown paper to avoid the ribbon melting and sticking to the iron. Because as I can attest, if your husband irons his overpriced snowy white business shirt right after a Christmas red ribbon has had a meltdown, very hurtful words can be spoken.

Says leaf.TV, if you’re going to iron say, a satin ribbon, likely of dubious parentage in that it’s probably not satin but polyester:

1. Lay the satin ribbon out, reverse side up on an ironing board (this will save tainting the shiny side). Remove all folds in the satin.
2. Place a cloth on top of the satin ribbon to prevent the iron from touching the satin directly.
3. Set your iron to the lowest temperature to avoid burning the satin when you apply the iron.
4. Iron the ribbon in one direction from one end to the other. Do not apply sprayed water to the satin as this can stain it. Use swift movements when ironing to flatten out the wrinkles in the ribbon.

But it turns out there is an easier way, the Denise way, a way which has a lower margin for error and it involves the kettle. And here’s the thing – of the many lovely comments I received on my Studio 10 segment – most people only wanted to talk about the wrinkled ribbon and the kettle. If I had known there was so much pent up demand for tips on straightening out wrinkled ribbons – I would have blogged about it sooner.

You simply rub the ribbon over a kettle that has been boiled and the heat removes the wrinkles. Genius. You can also steam the ribbon over a kettle, keeping a watchful eye on how the ribbon reacts.

And after the initial wave of Denise and kettle appreciation came a second wave of other dewrinkling suggestions. How about wandering over to a turned on lamp (or at the very least a lamp that has been turned on), take the shade off  and rub the ribbon over the hot bulb. V v v v clever  for those who regularly clean the bulbs in the lamps but a dusty sad nightmare for us lamp ignorers.

Photo from BH&G

Then came the idea to use your hair straighteners. Think there still might be a melting issue but I will reserve judgment until I give it a go. Could end up with congealed ribbon on my freshly straightened locks but in the gift wrapping game you have to commit.That suggestion was followed by ironing the ribbon, sandwich like between two pillow cases or placing the ribbon near other sources of heated air like hair dryers or clothes dryers.

This is a subject that keeps on giving because soon I was researching ways to get wrinkles out anything when you don’t have an iron courtesy of the Huffington Post. Tip 5  – you guessed it. The kettle. Seems like I have underestimated my kettle. I am going home to look at it in an entirely new light. Well I’ll clean if first. And as I am cleaning it, I’ll reflect on my day at Studio 10 which I will sum up as Ribbons, Denise and the Kettle.