Pressing

Ironing removes wrinkles from finished clothes by gliding the iron back and forth. Pressing is a sewing step: you put the iron down on one spot, hold, lift and move on, so you shape the fabric without stretching it. Pressing as you sew is the difference between a garment that looks homemade and one that looks professionally made.

The core habits:

1. Press every seam before crossing it with another. Press it flat as sewn first, to set the stitches into the fabric, then open or to one side as the pattern says.
2. Press from the wrong side, or use a pressing cloth on the right side.
3. Match the heat to the fiber: low for synthetics and silk, medium for wool and viscose, high for cotton and linen. Test on a scrap.
4. Let it cool in position. Fabric sets as it cools and dries.
5. Press curves on a curve, with a tailor's ham for darts and shaped seams and a sleeve roll for narrow tubes.

A clapper, a block of hardwood pressed onto freshly steamed fabric, gives very sharp creases and flat seams in wool and linen. A needle board or a thick towel protects velvet and other pile fabrics from being crushed.

Fusing interfacing follows the same rule: press, do not slide (see fusible).