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If you sew, you’ll need to do a lot of pressing and ironing. Fortunately, there are a lot of pressing and ironing tools to make this faster and easier! First, let’s look at the difference between pressing and ironing, and why you’ll need to do each while you sew.

Ironing versus pressing in sewing

Ironing fabric

Ironing is sliding the iron across the fabric to get out wrinkles. It’s a good idea to iron fabric before cutting it out, as placing a pattern on wrinkly fabric can lead to inaccurate cutting.

The fabric could also shrink a bit (especially if you didn’t pre-wash. I do recommend prewashing fabric).

Pressing seams

Pressing is placing the iron over the top of a seam after sewing to make the stitching meld together.

While pressing, don’t move the iron back and forth like you are ironing a rumpled tablecloth. You hold the iron in place for a few seconds to help make the seam and the fabric sit just right.

After pressing flat, you may press your seams open or to one side. If pressing to the side, I like to press toward the back.

Pressing and Ironing tools for garment sewing

I wrote an article recently about how to sew darts, and mentioned using a tailor’s ham while pressing darts.

I had a few reader questions about this and thought I would give the humble tailor’s ham and other pressing tools their own post.

Pressing darts with a tailor’s ham

Ok. Let’s think about darts.

Darts tailor a garment over curves. When you need to press a dart or a curved seam, if you try and press it on a flat ironing board, it will be a bit like trying to flatten an orange peel. You need to press curves on a curved surface.

The tailor’s ham offers support under the curve while you press. Experiment with different edges of the ham as there are different degrees of curve.

I have also placed the ham on its side for a more gentle curve.

This is particularly useful if you are doing something like pressing the end of the dart on a shirt and want the tip of the dart to go smoothly into the rest of the fabric.

• If you are pressing darts, press them with the extra fabric in the dart going toward the side seam).
• Usually, a tailor’s ham will have a different fabric on top versus bottom – (wool/canvas) – use the wool side for wool and the canvas side for other fabrics.

What if I don’t have a tailor’s ham?

Keep in mind the purpose of the ham is to match the curve of what you are pressing.

In a pinch, you could use something like a rolled-up towel, or stuff a sock with rags and fabric scraps and tie the open end.

If you happen to have a sleeve board, you might be able to make do as those tend to have a rounded top.

Pressing and Ironing tools to make your sewing projects easier

A press cloth:

• Usually cotton, it goes in between the iron and fabrics where the iron could leave a shiny mark, like on some synthetics or wool.
• You don’t need to buy anything special here. Just use a square of cloth, or even an old dish towel.

Interfacing designated press cloth:

• When using fusible interfacing, place the glue side (the side with the dots) on your fabric, and use a press cloth on top.
• I put a big “X” in pencil across one side of the cloth. The side with the X will always be the side touching the interfacing. This side will usually get some interfacing on it, so you want to keep that away from your iron, and don’t use that press cloth when you are not applying fusible interfacing.

I hope that cleared a few things up for those of you who haven’t used a tailor’s ham before, or wanted to learn more about ironing versus pressing. Do you have any other pressing tools that you use?

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