Handy sewing hint of the day #7

Remember cut her flat and make her round?

In my mind this starts happening as soon as you take the pieces off your cutting table. 

From that point on I try to keep my construction vertical (as I am most of the time) and in a training situation to be a round shape.

This means that between pressing and sewing sessions I either hang up pieces or, better still, pin them to my dress form. I had an idea a while ago to experiment with draping but that stopped when I realized I am not particularly interested in draping, so I use my dress form as a place where my pieces can practice being a garment.

I feel that you can't take flat fabric, press it flat on an ironing board,  and then expect it to be successfully round the rest of its life. Your fabric has to learn those days are over and there is no time like the present.

Of course this brings us back to pressing and another essential pressing tool, the tailor's ham.

Here is mine:

Now this one, as old as my serious sewing, has a couple of curve variations, but really I use the end and the concave side the most. It has a wool side (napped) and a cotton side. I suppose you could make your own if you had a source for hardwood sawdust and could pack it tight enough into a shape but that would be about as easy as putting on support knee socks IMO.

The point is whenever you have sewn a seam that is not perfectly straight - princess seams, some waistbands, darts - so many things - you will get a better press if you position your fabric over a matching curve.

Oh and because I haven't mentioned it before and should have, once you have that heat and steam in your fabric don't move it until it is cooled. That will give your fabric a chance to set the press.

Tailor's hams are also enormously useful when making collars, particularly those with wool or fabric with some memory to them.

You can set your ham up vertical in a ham holder (you can use cans or, like one woman I know take it  to the garage and put it in a vice on the workbench) and treat it like a fake neck.

That's right.

Wrap your collar around the ham like it would be when you are wearing it.

Note that this will probably shoot the under collar out a bit when you roll the long collar seam under so it won't show - just cut the extra off, this means when you sew the collar to the neck edge the seam will stay hidden - never be a slave to matching the cut edges when you are in the make flat round process.

Back to the ham/neck.

Once you have this set up take your iron and shoot that little unit full of heat and steam and leave it to dry.

This will give you a beautifully shaped, already pressed collar to insert into your garment - with a nice professional press you absolutely cannot get when you are ramming it into an ironing board and hoping for the best.

This is what steaming it on a ham looks like:

Handy sewing hint of the day #6

Even more on pressing.

There is a lot to say on this issue and I am sure during my regular 2:45 a.m. wake-ups  I will keep remembering more to talk about.

Just pressing seams is huge.

It is entirely possible to ruin your project by pressing mistakes. I should know.

Couple of things.

First of it is important to remember that underneath that seam is a seam allowance. Press a seam flat from the right side and there is a good chance that you will press in ridges representing your seam allowances, on either side of the stitching line. IMO opinion this can make your garment look sort of worn out even before it has been worn.

So what can you do?

First thing is to press from the wrong side. Before you press the seam open, press it as you have sewn it to the side and flat, to impede the stitches, then press that seam open.

From the wrong side.

To avoid the seam ridge thing you can lay some paper strips under the seam allowances, between the seam allowances and the garment to insulate the garment from the bulk.

You can do this with long brown paper strips or envelopes. That's what I use envelopes, but I have to tell you not to use any old ones with writing on them.

I have personally, me, ironed in a return address into some nice silk.

The other way, and probably faster, is to lay the seam over a seam roll and press just along the stitching line. Here is my seam roll:

Because a seam roll is round once you lay your seam on it the seam allowances will be lifted from the garment fabric and won't be pressed into it:

Now of course you can buy a seam roll, they are filled with hardwood sawdust, or you can improvise. I have been using a half done roll of paper towel here in the rv, and have used some of those heavy cardboard rolls they have in fabric store for rolling fabric when I had to at home.

And of course the heavy cardboard or sawdust will amplify the effect of your iron and give you a nice  clean press.

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:

Handy sewing hint of the day #4

Before I go any further I have to say the best stuff on this blog is in the comment section. 

Make sure you read the comments too. The handy hints that are coming in there are terrific. One point of clarification, when I wrote opaque on the subject of pressing cloths, I could have meant translucent, I guess almost transparent - but I probably should have just said thin. As in thin, worn cotton or linen, thin enough you can have a sense what's underneath would work.

Just don't be suckered into those thick so-called pressing cloths for sale.

Now onto ironing boards.

The kind of ironing board a sewer needs has to have the qualities of a steady table. You are going to be using it a lot, pressing down on fusible interfacing, pressing down with your own weight on a clapper to set a sharp crease (more on that later) and you don't need wooble. This is a sewing occupational health and safety issue.

What you don't need is your average rickety modern Walmart ironing board such is produced by a culture that really doesn't do much ironing anymore.

They just won't hold up to real sewing pressing.

Now you can pad an actual table, cover and use that, and buy a sleeve board or something to put on top for the bits that need some kind of point.

The other idea, and what I myself did, was to buy a yard sale old school ironing board of the kind that weigh like they are made out of iron and some family is getting rid of so they can buy a modern, light rickety unit from Walmart. Maybe your mom has one you can talk her out of, maybe your grandmother.

Or, alternately you can go to the Melrose Avenue street yard sale in June and Mrs. Smith will sell you one for $2.00

After you have had someone help you lug this monstrosity home, by someone who invariably will say to you "I thought we were getting rid of our junk not buying more of it" you have to cover it.

Do not, repeat, do not ever use one of those silver teflon "modern" ironing board covers that are supposed to increase the efficiency of your iron by reflecting back the heat.

These things are sewer's Kryptonite and will, guaranteed, fry all your good work, on both sides and do lots of other bad things that I would list now if I could think of them.

You need to go natural and you need to cover that old ironing board in wool because wool will absorb the moisture of your steam iron and slowly release it back to the underside of the fabric you are pressing (now that is how you really increase the efficiency of your iron) in a nice, friendly, reasonable, professional way.

I covered/padded the top of my own ironing board with some thin wool blankets that were given to my mother when she went into nursing school in about 1950 or thereabouts and even have her initials on them. 

Perfect. 

I just wrapped those blankets around the top of the ironing board and fastened them on the underside with baby diaper safety pins (we throw nothing out around here, you never know).

Next you have to cover the top of the ironing board with 100% heavy cotton. I favour something with stripes so you can use the surface for lining things up straight or big checks etc. because this is also useful.

Now other sewers over to you, what are your ironing board thoughts?

Handy sewing hint of the day #3

Time to talk about pressing.

Old school says you should spend as much time at the ironing board as the machine and that is correct.

A few handy hints on this one.

First of all a pressing cloth is your friend. You can spray water on it to augment the steam of a domestic iron, and it will keep you from applying that terrible shine to dark fabrics, or otherwise over pressing/burning other fabrics

But before we go any further the first thing you need to know is :don't ever buy or use something sewing stores sell as "pressing cloths". These things are about as useful as vinyl tiles laying on your fabric - way too heavy and the heat just won't get through.

What you need for general pressing is something opaque so you have a vague idea of what you doing and can sort of see if you have the right area under it.

I personally like cotton organza (something similar is often sold as woven sew-in interfacing - make sure this is not fusible of course), some people use old worn out handkerchiefs or pillowslips but since the Depression is over folks tend not to save that stuff anymore.

I used to have gauze cloth diapers from the kids and used those sometimes but they are hard to get nowadays, too bad, they were great on babies' bums and great for pressing. Birdseye gauze, primo stuff.

If you work with a lot of velveteen, velvet, (and good luck to you too) or corduroy it is also useful to have a pressing cloth under the fabric (lay the fabric nap side down) to support the nap so it doesn't get crushed. A velour type cotton hand towel is idea.

To be continued.