Перед выходом я погладила манжеты и воротник, и рубашка сразу стала выглядеть лучше.

Because the preposition перед normally takes the instrumental case when it means before or in front of something.

So:

• перед
  • instrumental
• выход → выходом (instrumental singular)

Here перед выходом means before going out / before leaving.

A learner may compare it with до выхода, which is also possible in some contexts, but the nuance is a bit different:

• перед выходом = right before going out, immediately before that moment
• до выхода = before the departure/exit, often a bit more neutral or abstract

In this sentence, перед выходом sounds very natural because the speaker is describing what she did just before leaving.

Here выходом is the instrumental singular of выход.

The noun выход can mean:

• exit
• way out
• going out / departure

In this sentence, it does not mean a physical exit door. It means the act of going out / leaving.

So перед выходом is best understood as:

• before going out
• before leaving

Russian often uses nouns like this where English might prefer a verb phrase.

Because погладила is perfective, and here the speaker is talking about a completed action.

Compare:

• гладила = was ironing / used to iron / ironed (imperfective, process or repeated action)
• погладила = ironed (and finished) (perfective, completed result)

In this sentence, the idea is:

1. she ironed the cuffs and collar
2. as a result, the shirt looked better

That result-focused meaning fits the perfective verb погладить very well.

So я погладила манжеты и воротник means something like:

• I ironed the cuffs and collar
• with the sense I did it and finished doing it

Because it is past tense feminine singular.

In Russian past tense, verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

For погладить in the past:

• погладил = he ironed
• погладила = she ironed
• погладило = it ironed
• погладили = they ironed

So я погладила tells us the speaker is female.

If the speaker were male, it would be:

• Перед выходом я погладил манжеты и воротник...

They are the direct objects of погладила, so they are in the accusative case.

However, because these nouns are inanimate, their accusative forms look like the nominative in this sentence.

• манжеты = plural of манжета

  • nominative plural: манжеты
  • accusative plural (inanimate): манжеты

• воротник = masculine singular

  • nominative singular: воротник
  • accusative singular (inanimate): воротник

So although the forms do not visibly change here, grammatically they are functioning as accusative objects.

Манжеты means cuffs, specifically the ends of shirt sleeves.

So:

• воротник = collar
• манжеты = cuffs

The sentence is describing a common quick fix before going out: ironing just the parts of the shirt that are most visible.

Because стала выглядеть emphasizes a change of state.

• выглядела лучше = looked better
• стала выглядеть лучше = began to look better / came to look better / started looking better

In this sentence, the shirt looked better after the ironing, so Russian uses:

• стала
  • infinitive

This is a very common pattern:

• стать лучше = to become better
• стать выглядеть лучше = to start looking better / to come to look better

It highlights the result of the action in the first clause.

Because лучше is the comparative form meaning better, and after выглядеть Russian normally uses this kind of form, not an agreeing adjective.

So:

• рубашка стала выглядеть лучше = the shirt started to look better

Here лучше does not agree with рубашка in gender or number. It works more like an adverb/comparative predicate.

This is similar to English:

• She looks better
• not She looks gooder or an adjective that has to match the noun in form

Because Russian often simply names the noun again if that sounds natural.

The structure is:

• Перед выходом я погладила манжеты и воротник, и рубашка сразу стала выглядеть лучше.

Literally:

• Before going out, I ironed the cuffs and collar, and the shirt immediately started to look better.

Russian does not need to say она here, and in fact рубашка is clearer and more natural because it makes the result explicit.

If you replaced it with она, the meaning would still be understandable from context, but repeating рубашка is stylistically very normal.

Сразу means right away, immediately, or at once.

So:

• рубашка сразу стала выглядеть лучше = the shirt immediately looked better / started to look better right away

It emphasizes that ironing the cuffs and collar had an instant visible effect.

Russian word order is fairly flexible, so сразу could move around, but its position here is very natural:

• рубашка сразу стала выглядеть лучше

That placement puts the adverb close to the verbal idea and sounds smooth in everyday Russian.

Yes, this word order is natural.

The sentence is organized in a very clear way:

1. Перед выходом — time frame
2. я погладила манжеты и воротник — completed action
3. и рубашка сразу стала выглядеть лучше — result

Russian word order is flexible, so other versions are possible, for example:

• Я перед выходом погладила манжеты и воротник, и рубашка сразу стала выглядеть лучше.
• Перед выходом я погладила воротник и манжеты, и рубашка стала выглядеть лучше сразу.

But the original sounds smooth and natural. It presents the timing first, then the action, then the result.