Handy sewing hint of the day #5:

And on with the pressing.

Lots of folks get wound up with an iron, and a good one, heavy and with a burst of steam is important (and hopefully without that annoying automatic shut off function that they all seem to have these days, in domestic irons a least) and these features are certainly are useful.

The truth is that pressing well really depends on good pressing tools, as much or more than the iron you use.

These pressing tools need to be made out of hardwood, or in the case of seam rolls and hams, packed with hardwood sawdust. Pine won't work because it will leave sap on your fabric.

Wood, and paper for that matter, has the ability to catch and hold heat and moisture and return it to the fabric. This enormously increases the pressing power of your iron.

The first tool you need is a tailor's clapper, essentially a long, smooth piece of hardwood that you press down on a seam or hem or edge you really want a hard, sharp edge on (think military crease, think gabardine or denim hems).

Shoot your fabric full of steam and then press it hard with some real weight behind it with your clapper. Don't move until the wood and the fabric go cold.

Clappers are often combined with "point presses" miniature Barbie doll ironing boards mounted on top, that are useful for pressing little seams like collars and cuffs that you just can't get at with an ordinary iron.

I couldn't function without my clapper/point presser.

Here is what it looks like:

And here it is in action, pressing the long seam of a collar open:

In response to questions here is an example of a point presser/clapper: