Just give me a needle!

Friday, July 18, 2014

Remember the flanged pillow tutorial that I showed you here? I promised to show you how to press those edges so you don't have to fidget with rolling them and burning your fingers. And you will never have the frustration again of having those seams uneven after pressing them.

Normally, if I'm stitching a french seam, I'd press the seam allowance to one side then to the other before turning it and pressing it flat. That works great on a dress. But when working with something like a pillow that has 4 sides, not so much. My ex MIL taught me years ago to wet the little fingers and just roll those edges until you got them where you wanted them, then you could press. The trouble with that is the steam from the iron will always burn my fingers.

When you see this, you'll wonder why you hadn't been using this little gadget before. Okay, so maybe this IS how you do it, and I'm just catching up. LOL

Do you have one of these? These are great for pressing seams. Nonie told me about this little gadget on her blog. I went out and bought one pronto. I use it quite a bit when I don't want to burn my fingers pressing up hems. Then I thought: why couldn't I use this on my pillows. Wait!!! I can!!! Duh!!

Slip that little sucker right inside the pillow underneath the seam allowance.

Once there, use one hand to hold it in place and gently pull the top fabric taught over it until the seam allowance on the outside is right where you need it. See that pretty seam?

Now press. This is velveteen, so I used very low heat and didn't apply a lot of pressure.

It also works like a charm in the corners. Just place the corner of the gadget in that corner under the seam allowance.

And look how neat that corner pressed!!

And here it is with 2 sides completed. Never ever burn your fingers again pressing these types of seam allowances. And always get a perfect seam - always!