What’s a pressing cloth you ask? A pressing cloth is a piece of fabric that allows you to safely iron your project. Because you put the pressing cloth on top of the item to be ironed, it protects your fabric or embroidery from extreme heat. This is especially helpful when sewing with polyester threads or doing embroidery as those materials can melt under intense heat. The pressing cloth can also help prevent sensitive fabrics from losing color or shine. And, pressing cloths should always be used when using interfacing or fusible products to avoid any of the adhesive from touching the surface of your iron.
While you can buy pressing cloths, they are super easy to make. Kim made several for our classrooms using a fat quarter of Kona cotton (a piece measuring 18″ x 21″), a serger, and a sewing machine with decorative stitches and contrasting color thread. While Kim’s are fancy, you can make yours as simple as you’d like!
Kim used one of our Bernina 475 QE sewing machines and selected an alphabet stitch and sewed the words Pressing Cloth with some cute flowers across the top. This is a nice touch and in our classroom will help remind people what these pieces of fabric are for.
Next Kim serged the edges to prevent fraying and have a nice finish. If you don’t have a serger you can use a zig zag stitch around the edges, or do a rolled hem. Any of these methods will protect the edges of your Pressing Cloth through heavy use.
And that is seriously all there is to it! As helpful as a pressing cloths are, we have a bunch of other tools that we love for perfecting our seams and ironing our fabrics. Here are a few:
Best Press is a starch product. A special stain shield protects fabrics, and the product helps resist wrinkles. Best of all, it’s more effective than any starch you’ve ever used.
Flatter makes ironing easier. This starch-free smoothing spray relaxes wrinkles and freshens fabrics. Use it to freshen fabrics between washings, or spray it on to reduce (and even resist) wrinkles. Spray it on to leave your fabric sleek, soft, and static-free. Plus it has awesome scents.
The Strip Stick, so-named for pressing seams when strip quilting, makes ironing seams a snap without distorting previously pressed seams. Other uses include the ability to press intricate piecing, such as one-block wonders and other blocks with intersecting seams. Quilters are excited to have a tool that not only keeps the seams very straight, but also cuts pressing time to a minimum!
Save time while quilting and piece like an expert with the Easy Press Pen™. The Easy Press Pen™ makes it easy to create accurate, flat seams every time you quilt. Simply roll the pen where you want starch and you will get accurate and flat seams.
Press any pieced or embroidered block with ease with a wool mat. The density of this high-quality 100% felted wool mat localizes heat to the seams and stitches, effectively pressing both sides at once. An added bonus? The texture of the wool stops fabrics from shifting so there is no distortion when pressing.
These are some of our favorite pressing tools to get accurate and flat seams. Problems with your seams can cause construction issues with your blocks. They can also show up during the quilting process resulting in a lumpy quilt. Give these tools a try and let us know what you think!
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Very helpful article. Thank you very much for your ironing tips and info about pressing cloths.