That moment in your project when you can put it on a hanger or your dress form….
Then reality sets in when A, you look at the piles of pieces waiting to be prepped and put together and B, when your instructor, Nora Elias, gives you direction to press every inch of every seam. I knew B would be coming up and if it weren’t for Nora, I may have absentmindedly skipped this process. I also had anxiety over this as her explicit instructions were “Press with cloth, then put something heavy on it. Leave it overnight”.
Girl! I don’t have the time (okay patience) to wait overnight! Plus, just something heavy? But there’s curves to my now 3D object. What heavy object will I come up with? We discussed the options, a clapper (I don’t have one), a cutting board…”Just something heavy” was her response. But lo and behold, I came up with a solution – ankle weights. Heavy, metal based (cools it off) and cloth-covered to help absorb the moisture with the help of a cotton pressing cloth.
As part of my commitment to slow down and pay attention to the process, I’ve accepted that pressing every seam is very important to a clean, professional finish. It really does make all the difference. Steam and pressure is key, lots of both. Below is the back seams before, a glimpse of the inside (before) and the result of pressing with steam and letting it cool with the weights. Let me know what you think.
