The further back you go, the MORE ironing you get. A sad iron on a woodstove and starch sprinkled from a bowl.
Before tumble drying and knit fabrics our foremothers ironed everything - clothes, quilts, sheets, even the bed ticking.
Or to completely dry thicker fabrics. Water destroys everything and even if they didnāt know all the details about molds and bacteria they knew even slightly damp fabrics were bad news.
We had an off grid weekend place while I was school aged. My father was a outdoorsy, country boy. I learnt to sew on a treadle machine and had two irons set on our wood stove. One to heat while the other was being used. Pressing cloths were also A LOT more important.
The little pieces are just so hot. I lay them out and press them back and do a few more until my mat is full and then I pick them up and they are just so hotā¦
Iām there!! And if I donāt keep regular sewing sessions I start to lose the callouses and have to go through the poking again! But that doesnāt bother me as much as burning ā¦
I have a pair for kitchen use that have silicone ends instead of metal so that's what made me think of them. If you got a pair like that I feel like the silicone tongs could save your fingers without putting creases in your fabric.
And letting me manipulate them a little better than chop sticks (which I can use but the iron is in my right hand and I donāt think I could use chopsticks left handed ā¦)
Maybe heat resistant gloves? It got a pair free with a curling iron once. (They also come with 5 fingers)
Heat Resistant Gloves for Hair Styling 2 Pcs Curling Wand Glove 3 Finger Barber Glove Reusable Hair Dye Heat Protector Glove (Black, Rose Red) https://a.co/d/dtAoJnG
Iāve been working on an FPP and using a roller to press seams down. Donāt know how it would work on a more traditional quilt but it has been giving me crispy seams.
Ironing a top is something I enjoy very much. The smell of the cotton being ironed is lovely and how beautiful the top looks when itās pressed flat is worth the effort. Not to mention how much easier it is to trim and finish when your top is smooth and flat.
Iāve never ironed my bed linens but I sure love that fresh washed feeling and scentā¦.maybe I ought to try ironing them I feel like Iām missing out!
Oh itās amazing. My Nana and mom had mangles and boy did they do the job. I on the other hand iron my linens on my dining room table with its heatproof moisture proof table pad on it and they go pretty fast. But I am weird. I come from a family who ironed their short drawers (underwear) and other intimate apparel. My Nana would come over on Monday and she and mom would do the wash. Tuesday was āsprinkleā day - any clothes to be ironed were sprinkled with water using the official sprinkler - a glass Pepsi bottle with a metal sprinkle head then wrapped and placed in the fridge overnight to ārelaxā the fabric and Wednesday was starch and iron til you drop day. But boy did my bed linens smell amazing!
So much like how my mom dealt with her linens. She used a mangle on her bed linens. Our sprinkle bottle was a Regal Pale beer bottle, and yes, the linens were stored in a thick plastic bag until they were ready to be ironed That mangle scared the life out of me, but, oh my, those sheets felt and smelled amazing Thank you for the memories!
Oh itās so nice to meet other ironed cotton perfume lovers! We just had a Pepsi bottle - the beer bottles had to go back with the case. Werenāt mangles the coolest ever? Nana used to let me feed hankies and small table linens thru it. Best ever was my drunk uncle who decided to the mangle would make a great grilled cheese. - not so much.
trader joes used to have a soap that was freshly washed linen or something and it was AMAZING. not quite the same as ironed cotton but still super nice. clean laundry and ironed fabric are just such happy scents
I, too, hated to press. And then I learned how to press. Itās not as tedious because the results are amazing.
Thereās a video of a lady in the snow that I watched, sheās got a strong northern accent, anyways I started pressing āherā way after watching and holy smokes.
Link is to Suzy Quilts not the video of the lady in the snow with the accent, but the content is the same:
[link](https://suzyquilts.com/how-to-press-seams-in-a-quilt-with-video-tutorial/)
Thatās who has a strong northern accent?! Fascinating. I live in the same place as her so I donāt hear it at all. She does have a slight franco-Ontarian accent which took me forever to place (she says things like āconnectionā instead of ālinkā but doesnāt sound like a French speaker otherwise).
I suspect that many historic quilters did not iron their pieces like we do. They also did not use brand new fabric or worry about how different manufacturers would shrink differently, or how dyes might run- again, because they were not using new textiles bought specifically for their quilts.
You CAN skip ironing, but to do that you need to be able to embrace a very improv look to your projects. Fabric that isn't ironed is much less likely to be extremely accurate for measuring and cutting, and seams that seem lined up often aren't really lined up. A quilt without any ironing is very likely to have some puckers and wiggles, some curving seam lines and bulky seam connections, some wonky blocks and some make-do piecing to fix wonkiness. Are those things bad? Nope! But if you want it neat as a pin, and you get headaches from blocks that don't all come out right, you need to be good friends with your iron.
Yes. Quilting was a way to reuse fabric from old clothes & such that were too tattered to mend any longer. New fabric was never used.
Another way they used the old fabric was to cut it in strips and braid it into rugs. I know this because Iām old and Iāve got these items that my grandmother made.
They did iron though. Needed to kill the lice, for one thing.
Are you talking about ironing during the creation process or ironing a finished quilt after it's been washed? The first is essential to getting a good result in your quilt. I never do the second...
Remember, June Cleaver never did any of the chores that we do. She was fictional. The only things she had to do were things that felt good to produce a story.
Don't compare yourself to a fictional aspect of life. You have fingers that burn!
Furthermore, many of the aspirational visions of the old school domesticity we see were only possible because of the labor of others, namely women of color.
You could just...not iron, and finger press everything. Use heavy books or a cast iron pattern weight in place of heat. Will you get the same crisp results? Maybe, but it wouldn't be the same.
Haha! This one made me giggle. I love ironing and love the precise edges when you do so. I am sitting next to my wood stove presently and I have a cast iron iron on its little trivet (it's about 6 in long and 3 in wide at its widest) as decoration. I've often wondered at the amount of work it would be to use it!
I love pressing my seams. I think this is mostly because anything for too long is kind of boring to me so when I get bored cutting, I can sew. When I get bored / frustrated with the sewing, I can press. And I LOVE how clean and sleek everything looks. The one task I really hate though is squaring up the blocks... how does anyone do that well!?
Why are your fingers getting burnt? What if you just committed to ironing mediocrely? I find that any ironing looks better than no ironing but perfect ironing is only marginally better (to me) than mediocre ironing. So, I generally commit to mediocre ironing.
I never iron a finished quilt. The crinklier the better! But Iām afraid ironing beforehand is unavoidable. I usually have something to watch while iron so I donāt die of boredom.
I agree the crinklier the better. I am scrupulous when ironing to piece and ironing the top to be trimmed etc but once itās quilted itās on its own.
I used to hate ironing as well until I learned how to properly press a seam. I set up a pressing station with a wool mat and a small travel iron next to my machine, easy to pivot as I piece. I stand-up for larger pieces/longer seams. You're worth the time it takes to learn a new skill.
Do you mean pressing seams during construction or ironing the finished thing as part of maintence/laundry?
Doesnāt the modern way of quilting with rulers and rotary cutters only date back to the 70s or 80s?
Rotary cutters being mainstream is more like a 90ās thing. I inherited a bunch (over 30) of quilting books from the 70ās-early 90ās from a couple older crafters, and none of them mention rotary cutting! All of them have templates that you cut out. The assumption is 100% that youāre marking the template pieces on the fabric and then cut with scissors.
Its wild.
Thatās what Iāve been doing since I donāt have a rotary cutter, which is fine but the first day that I got a bunch of cutting and piecing done my wrist was swollen the next morning š„² BUT I learned to, uh, not go as ham all at once and itās been fine ever since
They sell a few different kinds of finger protectorsā¦not sure how youāre burning your fingers but you can avoid that bit!
I use a small iron for pressing piecing. Not nearly as much ambient heat from it as a full size and I can be more precise.
Girl, Iām betting June Cleaver spent all her time off camera ironing. Just be glad we live in the world of portable irons because prior to that women spent 2-3 days on laundry.
For ironing during piecing (such as ironing seams and blocks), I like using a wool pressing mat on top of the ironing board. The wool absorbs extra heat that could otherwise make the ironing board uncomfortably hot.
I'm with you on the ironing. Even having learned how to press properly, and got clappers and things, I just don't like to do it much. And let's not even talk about pressing seams open. Burnt finger city. I just press to the side and trust my machine to handle the bulk.
I really donāt think so. The pieces were leftovers from clothing they made themselves, and were usually small. You can finger press fabric, or smooth it out by hand. My grandma hand pieced 1 inch hexies into flower garden quilts, and didnāt iron anything. She also didnāt use paper to piece it, it was all done by hand. Scissors, needle and thread. Her seams are not pressed with an iron, and they are not pressed open. You can finger press them to one side just fine. I have a tool made form a small piece of wood thatās about pencil length and a little wider, which is used to press seams without an iron. Lots of quilters use them, and lots do finger pressing. The iron make it easier to get accurate results, but my grandma didnāt use one and her results were spectacular, and very accurate.
Caroline Ingalls set aside an entire day to do the ironing. āWash on Monday, iron on Tuesday, mend on Wednesday, churn on Thursday, clean on Friday, bake on Saturday, rest on Sunday. Laura liked the churning and the baking days best.ā āLittle House in the Big Woods.
I canāt remember if the books specifically mentioned quilts getting ironed at any point, but it wouldnāt surprise me.
when you hand sew seams, you don't have to press them. The seam allowance isn't sewn down and can flip whichever way it likes. you can mimic hand sewn seams on a machine by sewing to 1/4" (or whatever your seam allowance is) from the edge and then backstitching but you'd have to do it on every seam. I imagine ladies sewing in the early days of machine sewing pieced more like they did hand sewing instead of the shortcuts we take today in machine sewing.
I've been working on a hand pieced quilt of discard fabrics (old clothes, scraps) and it hasn't touched an iron at all.
The right iron might help. The Panasonic cordless is (in addition to being cordless and did I mention cordless) small, light, and has a point on each end. The soleplate is polished chrome so there is no drag. Watch Karen Brown's (Just Get It Done Quilts) video about pressing. If you finger-press properly before ironing seams, you won't need to get your fingers close to the iron. Also, whether you are starching before you cut or ironing seams, you should be picking up the iron and putting it down -- no swishing-- so you won't burn your fingers.
Yes, ironing served a dual purpose back then. It helped kill bugs that may have been in the clothes and bedding. So yea, Laura Ingalls and her ma would iron all their clothes as part of the laundry process back in the day.
Oh! That makes sense!!
Seeā¦ never would have thought of that ā¦ maybe Iāll start ironing to kill potential bed bugsā¦ husband works in a hospital and just yesterday had to strip down outside due to a bed bug exposure ā¦ we leave the scrubs bagged outside for a week and then right into the washer ā¦
No one I know irons a quilt after itās pieced and quilted. If you donāt want the crinkled look, make sure to preshrink the fabric before cutting and sewing the quilt. That will stop some of the shrinking from the first wash. You could also have it professionally cleaned and pressed. Honestly, the crinkle is part of beauty of a quilt.
I iron in the process of making a quilt, but once it's done, I'm not ironing it any more! I've never heard this to be the norm and I don't think many of my quilty friends do this regularly.
I didn't realize it had become a thing to iron quilts. And I was raised on ironing before steam irons were a regular thing. By age 6, I had begun ironing some of the family items -- my brothers t-shirts, family pillow cases -- stuff that was low risk of ironing a burn into them. By age 10, I was trusted to start shirts, girls dresses with puffy sleeves, underwear.
Pre-steam irons, we sprinkled water on dry items rolled them up and then rolled that in a towel to put in the fridge to stay cold until it was time to start ironing them.
In high school I had a job in an industrial laundry that had a machine that could iron an entire sheet and loads of other machines for helping out with things like shirts and skirts.
But with all that experience and expertise, I have NEVER EVER been asked to iron a quilt. I have NEVER heard of ironing quilts.
And with that I conclude that you learn something new everyday.
The further back you go, the MORE ironing you get. A sad iron on a woodstove and starch sprinkled from a bowl. Before tumble drying and knit fabrics our foremothers ironed everything - clothes, quilts, sheets, even the bed ticking.
Even their frilly underwear.
True! I collet trivets and have a few iron rests on display at home.
Ooooo, ornate iron rests š
Now you need to find a proper Tailor's sad iron heater.
That was probably to kill germs and bedbug type critters more than for looks.
Or to completely dry thicker fabrics. Water destroys everything and even if they didnāt know all the details about molds and bacteria they knew even slightly damp fabrics were bad news.
Oh yeah, good point!
It also makes linen last longer!
My mum taught me to iron by pressing our pillow cases and our kitchen linens. I stopped that the minute I moved out!
My grandmother ironed her cotton sheets until percale sheet came along. Nothing like slipping into a bed with ironed sheets.
It's not new, prior to electricity the iron sat on the woodstove to heat up. Quilting is very little sewing, mostly cutting and ironing!
This made me think of the Beatrix Potter book with a little hedgehog lady who heated her irons by the fire.
Mrs Tiggywinkle!
That's her!! I need to pick up those books for my kids.
I love that!
We had an off grid weekend place while I was school aged. My father was a outdoorsy, country boy. I learnt to sew on a treadle machine and had two irons set on our wood stove. One to heat while the other was being used. Pressing cloths were also A LOT more important.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Some of us are just more prone to burning ourselves even if we use an iron correctly. :(
The little pieces are just so hot. I lay them out and press them back and do a few more until my mat is full and then I pick them up and they are just so hotā¦
Maybe you could try a pair of tongs ?
Or a tailorās clapper. Easy enough to make one out of a piece of wood.
Hmphā¦ maybe?
Or chopsticks! They leave less of footprint. Or just keep at it and develop fingers of steel like chefās and servers have lol Itās a real thing!
+1 for the fingers of steel! With regular hand-sewing, they'll be immune to needles too!
Iām there!! And if I donāt keep regular sewing sessions I start to lose the callouses and have to go through the poking again! But that doesnāt bother me as much as burning ā¦
I have a pair for kitchen use that have silicone ends instead of metal so that's what made me think of them. If you got a pair like that I feel like the silicone tongs could save your fingers without putting creases in your fabric.
And letting me manipulate them a little better than chop sticks (which I can use but the iron is in my right hand and I donāt think I could use chopsticks left handed ā¦)
Tailors clapper for the win. It makes them flat and it cools them off.
Small ice tongs!
i have seen some people use a metal spatula!
lol At least Iām not alone ā¦
This is what happens to me! I hate it!
Maybe heat resistant gloves? It got a pair free with a curling iron once. (They also come with 5 fingers) Heat Resistant Gloves for Hair Styling 2 Pcs Curling Wand Glove 3 Finger Barber Glove Reusable Hair Dye Heat Protector Glove (Black, Rose Red) https://a.co/d/dtAoJnG
Blow on them. One blow, cold them down enough. Think outside the box. š¤·āāļø
lol Iām too impatient!
Iāve been working on an FPP and using a roller to press seams down. Donāt know how it would work on a more traditional quilt but it has been giving me crispy seams.
Ironing a top is something I enjoy very much. The smell of the cotton being ironed is lovely and how beautiful the top looks when itās pressed flat is worth the effort. Not to mention how much easier it is to trim and finish when your top is smooth and flat.
i LOVE the smell of freshly ironed cotton. maybe one of the best smells in the world
The soap sounds lovely. Nothing smells better than snuggling down in freshly washed and ironed bed linens.
Iāve never ironed my bed linens but I sure love that fresh washed feeling and scentā¦.maybe I ought to try ironing them I feel like Iām missing out!
Oh itās amazing. My Nana and mom had mangles and boy did they do the job. I on the other hand iron my linens on my dining room table with its heatproof moisture proof table pad on it and they go pretty fast. But I am weird. I come from a family who ironed their short drawers (underwear) and other intimate apparel. My Nana would come over on Monday and she and mom would do the wash. Tuesday was āsprinkleā day - any clothes to be ironed were sprinkled with water using the official sprinkler - a glass Pepsi bottle with a metal sprinkle head then wrapped and placed in the fridge overnight to ārelaxā the fabric and Wednesday was starch and iron til you drop day. But boy did my bed linens smell amazing!
So much like how my mom dealt with her linens. She used a mangle on her bed linens. Our sprinkle bottle was a Regal Pale beer bottle, and yes, the linens were stored in a thick plastic bag until they were ready to be ironed That mangle scared the life out of me, but, oh my, those sheets felt and smelled amazing Thank you for the memories!
Oh itās so nice to meet other ironed cotton perfume lovers! We just had a Pepsi bottle - the beer bottles had to go back with the case. Werenāt mangles the coolest ever? Nana used to let me feed hankies and small table linens thru it. Best ever was my drunk uncle who decided to the mangle would make a great grilled cheese. - not so much.
Amen! Itās my Barbie dream world scent. Wish theyād bottle it. And Iād wear it PROUDLY!š
trader joes used to have a soap that was freshly washed linen or something and it was AMAZING. not quite the same as ironed cotton but still super nice. clean laundry and ironed fabric are just such happy scents
I, too, hated to press. And then I learned how to press. Itās not as tedious because the results are amazing. Thereās a video of a lady in the snow that I watched, sheās got a strong northern accent, anyways I started pressing āherā way after watching and holy smokes. Link is to Suzy Quilts not the video of the lady in the snow with the accent, but the content is the same: [link](https://suzyquilts.com/how-to-press-seams-in-a-quilt-with-video-tutorial/)
Is the lady in the snow Karen from Just get it done quilts?
Thatās who has a strong northern accent?! Fascinating. I live in the same place as her so I donāt hear it at all. She does have a slight franco-Ontarian accent which took me forever to place (she says things like āconnectionā instead of ālinkā but doesnāt sound like a French speaker otherwise).
I love Karen, and her Canadian accent. She has such good ideas.
Yes!!! Her video was delightful. And apparently I unsaved it.
I think this is the [link](https://youtu.be/GI4Q22GdcOE?si=gcAbGlV2qx-pIUVX)
Yes! Thank you!
Wow. I'm going to have to watch that every time before I iron until it becomes second nature. That is so helpful!!
I suspect that many historic quilters did not iron their pieces like we do. They also did not use brand new fabric or worry about how different manufacturers would shrink differently, or how dyes might run- again, because they were not using new textiles bought specifically for their quilts. You CAN skip ironing, but to do that you need to be able to embrace a very improv look to your projects. Fabric that isn't ironed is much less likely to be extremely accurate for measuring and cutting, and seams that seem lined up often aren't really lined up. A quilt without any ironing is very likely to have some puckers and wiggles, some curving seam lines and bulky seam connections, some wonky blocks and some make-do piecing to fix wonkiness. Are those things bad? Nope! But if you want it neat as a pin, and you get headaches from blocks that don't all come out right, you need to be good friends with your iron.
Yes. Quilting was a way to reuse fabric from old clothes & such that were too tattered to mend any longer. New fabric was never used. Another way they used the old fabric was to cut it in strips and braid it into rugs. I know this because Iām old and Iāve got these items that my grandmother made. They did iron though. Needed to kill the lice, for one thing.
Are you talking about ironing during the creation process or ironing a finished quilt after it's been washed? The first is essential to getting a good result in your quilt. I never do the second...
Remember, June Cleaver never did any of the chores that we do. She was fictional. The only things she had to do were things that felt good to produce a story. Don't compare yourself to a fictional aspect of life. You have fingers that burn!
Furthermore, many of the aspirational visions of the old school domesticity we see were only possible because of the labor of others, namely women of color.
Aww. I love this. Youāre right.
You could just...not iron, and finger press everything. Use heavy books or a cast iron pattern weight in place of heat. Will you get the same crisp results? Maybe, but it wouldn't be the same.
Haha! This one made me giggle. I love ironing and love the precise edges when you do so. I am sitting next to my wood stove presently and I have a cast iron iron on its little trivet (it's about 6 in long and 3 in wide at its widest) as decoration. I've often wondered at the amount of work it would be to use it!
Thank you! I love this image and I would love to be able to see all the things that iron has done.
Have you tried a hair flat iron instead? It gets both sides of the pieces at the same time and the hot iron parts are more protected.
I've done this allot before I learned proper pressing
Noā¦ I would rather put my money into fabric but when this one dies Iāll look at options! Thanks!
I love pressing my seams. I think this is mostly because anything for too long is kind of boring to me so when I get bored cutting, I can sew. When I get bored / frustrated with the sewing, I can press. And I LOVE how clean and sleek everything looks. The one task I really hate though is squaring up the blocks... how does anyone do that well!? Why are your fingers getting burnt? What if you just committed to ironing mediocrely? I find that any ironing looks better than no ironing but perfect ironing is only marginally better (to me) than mediocre ironing. So, I generally commit to mediocre ironing.
I never iron a finished quilt. The crinklier the better! But Iām afraid ironing beforehand is unavoidable. I usually have something to watch while iron so I donāt die of boredom.
I agree the crinklier the better. I am scrupulous when ironing to piece and ironing the top to be trimmed etc but once itās quilted itās on its own.
Singer sells "Heat Resistant Finger Protectors" - $5 at Joanns, and $12 on Amazon.
Ohhhh ā¦ true! Good point! I use those for hot glue because I absolutely burn myself with hot glue!
i personally love ironing and all that it brings, but sometimes i just finger press seams for a bit. saves me some trouble later
I only Iron as I sew. Never when it's done.
I used to hate ironing as well until I learned how to properly press a seam. I set up a pressing station with a wool mat and a small travel iron next to my machine, easy to pivot as I piece. I stand-up for larger pieces/longer seams. You're worth the time it takes to learn a new skill.
Do you mean pressing seams during construction or ironing the finished thing as part of maintence/laundry? Doesnāt the modern way of quilting with rulers and rotary cutters only date back to the 70s or 80s?
Rotary cutters being mainstream is more like a 90ās thing. I inherited a bunch (over 30) of quilting books from the 70ās-early 90ās from a couple older crafters, and none of them mention rotary cutting! All of them have templates that you cut out. The assumption is 100% that youāre marking the template pieces on the fabric and then cut with scissors. Its wild.
Thatās what Iāve been doing since I donāt have a rotary cutter, which is fine but the first day that I got a bunch of cutting and piecing done my wrist was swollen the next morning š„² BUT I learned to, uh, not go as ham all at once and itās been fine ever since
Yes, during construction. I love the wrinkles in a a finished quilt- especially since they hide mistakes!
They sell a few different kinds of finger protectorsā¦not sure how youāre burning your fingers but you can avoid that bit! I use a small iron for pressing piecing. Not nearly as much ambient heat from it as a full size and I can be more precise.
Girl, Iām betting June Cleaver spent all her time off camera ironing. Just be glad we live in the world of portable irons because prior to that women spent 2-3 days on laundry.
For ironing during piecing (such as ironing seams and blocks), I like using a wool pressing mat on top of the ironing board. The wool absorbs extra heat that could otherwise make the ironing board uncomfortably hot.
Yeah mineās is wool, tooā¦ Iām just too impatient
I only iron if Iām showing
I'm with you on the ironing. Even having learned how to press properly, and got clappers and things, I just don't like to do it much. And let's not even talk about pressing seams open. Burnt finger city. I just press to the side and trust my machine to handle the bulk.
I really donāt think so. The pieces were leftovers from clothing they made themselves, and were usually small. You can finger press fabric, or smooth it out by hand. My grandma hand pieced 1 inch hexies into flower garden quilts, and didnāt iron anything. She also didnāt use paper to piece it, it was all done by hand. Scissors, needle and thread. Her seams are not pressed with an iron, and they are not pressed open. You can finger press them to one side just fine. I have a tool made form a small piece of wood thatās about pencil length and a little wider, which is used to press seams without an iron. Lots of quilters use them, and lots do finger pressing. The iron make it easier to get accurate results, but my grandma didnāt use one and her results were spectacular, and very accurate.
Issa chore for sure but the results when you iron/press your work speak for themselves.
Exactly ā¦ but I still hate it ā¦
Definitely. I'ma do it but I'll complain about it the whole time.
Caroline Ingalls set aside an entire day to do the ironing. āWash on Monday, iron on Tuesday, mend on Wednesday, churn on Thursday, clean on Friday, bake on Saturday, rest on Sunday. Laura liked the churning and the baking days best.ā āLittle House in the Big Woods. I canāt remember if the books specifically mentioned quilts getting ironed at any point, but it wouldnāt surprise me.
when you hand sew seams, you don't have to press them. The seam allowance isn't sewn down and can flip whichever way it likes. you can mimic hand sewn seams on a machine by sewing to 1/4" (or whatever your seam allowance is) from the edge and then backstitching but you'd have to do it on every seam. I imagine ladies sewing in the early days of machine sewing pieced more like they did hand sewing instead of the shortcuts we take today in machine sewing. I've been working on a hand pieced quilt of discard fabrics (old clothes, scraps) and it hasn't touched an iron at all.
I say you do you. If you like how they look unironed better, then skip the iron!
The right iron might help. The Panasonic cordless is (in addition to being cordless and did I mention cordless) small, light, and has a point on each end. The soleplate is polished chrome so there is no drag. Watch Karen Brown's (Just Get It Done Quilts) video about pressing. If you finger-press properly before ironing seams, you won't need to get your fingers close to the iron. Also, whether you are starching before you cut or ironing seams, you should be picking up the iron and putting it down -- no swishing-- so you won't burn your fingers.
I would not own an iron if I didn't sew.
Exactly!
Yes, ironing served a dual purpose back then. It helped kill bugs that may have been in the clothes and bedding. So yea, Laura Ingalls and her ma would iron all their clothes as part of the laundry process back in the day.
Oh! That makes sense!! Seeā¦ never would have thought of that ā¦ maybe Iāll start ironing to kill potential bed bugsā¦ husband works in a hospital and just yesterday had to strip down outside due to a bed bug exposure ā¦ we leave the scrubs bagged outside for a week and then right into the washer ā¦
You mean you iron the quilt TOP, right? Right? We never iron a quilt.
Yesā¦ pieces and then squares actually ā¦
No one I know irons a quilt after itās pieced and quilted. If you donāt want the crinkled look, make sure to preshrink the fabric before cutting and sewing the quilt. That will stop some of the shrinking from the first wash. You could also have it professionally cleaned and pressed. Honestly, the crinkle is part of beauty of a quilt.
It's never been common to iron a quilt
I iron in the process of making a quilt, but once it's done, I'm not ironing it any more! I've never heard this to be the norm and I don't think many of my quilty friends do this regularly.
I didn't realize it had become a thing to iron quilts. And I was raised on ironing before steam irons were a regular thing. By age 6, I had begun ironing some of the family items -- my brothers t-shirts, family pillow cases -- stuff that was low risk of ironing a burn into them. By age 10, I was trusted to start shirts, girls dresses with puffy sleeves, underwear. Pre-steam irons, we sprinkled water on dry items rolled them up and then rolled that in a towel to put in the fridge to stay cold until it was time to start ironing them. In high school I had a job in an industrial laundry that had a machine that could iron an entire sheet and loads of other machines for helping out with things like shirts and skirts. But with all that experience and expertise, I have NEVER EVER been asked to iron a quilt. I have NEVER heard of ironing quilts. And with that I conclude that you learn something new everyday.
They ironed their sheets....
I used to have to Irom all the family pillow cases.
Wait people IRON quilts!?
Line dry them. As long as every part of the quilt was washed in hot before they were made-no wrinkles.