How to Make a Pressing Cloth

An invaluable tool for sewers and quilters alike is a pressing cloth. It's something that you could buy in a fabric store or online and this is an example of one in its package, so that you know, kind of what to look for, this one's by Dritz. I first became aware of a pressing cloth when I took a tailoring course just out of high school and I have never looked back from using it. It is one of the best investments that I've ever made and it doesn't cost that much. The pressing cloth is typically square, this particular one, I really like, I just recently picked it up at the local fabric store, is longer, it's rectangular and you can see it's quite long and wide, which makes it perfect for quilters. It also is good for long seams. I do a lot of home deck work of valances and draperies and the like, plus the quilting business, so I find that I use this quite a bit. The other option for a pressing cloth, if you don't want to purchase a commercial one is you can use a handkerchief. For years, I've used my dad's old handkerchiefs. Dad's been gone for about 20 years and every time I use it, I think of him. You can see how much the pressing cloth has picked up from the fabrics. It has picked up a little bit of glitter, it's picked up some of the adhesive from doing applique, it has picked up scorches and when this happens it doesn't go through to your fabric. So daddy's handkerchiefs have saved me quite a bit of grief and then, like I said, I've also had the commercial pressing cloth which has been wonderful, I'm still sentimental over the handkerchief though. You can use almost anything for a pressing cloth as long as it's 100% cotton and it's white. So, all right, I just restricted you, 100% white cotton fabric. And the reason I want you to have 100% cotton is that it just reacts well with every type of fiber, it's a good protectant. But the white is the key issue and that's because you don't want to dare transfer any dye to what you're working with. It's like when you have a spill or a stain on your carpeting, you always get a white washcloth, that's so you don't transfer more stain or die to the carpet, same thing with your pressing cloth. You want it to be white to make sure no stain or dye from your fabric goes onto your garment or your project. Let me show you how this works. The nice part of pressing cloths is that it doesn't leave a mark, so it's perfect for your velours, your velvets, your corduroys, you won't see seams coming through, you won't flatten the fibers. As I said before, it helps you avoid scorching, it's wonderful for applique because it will keep the adhesive off of your iron, it's wonderful for pressing fabric at a higher heat, especially delicate fabrics. And you can press polyester fibers or fabrics without melting any of the fibers, and that's especially true on fleece. So to demo this, I've got some very delicate bridal type fabric here, I've got my seam, I was getting ready to do a French seam with it. So there's my initial seam, I simply put the pressing cloth on top and I come along and I'm giving it steam, you wouldn't do this with just the regular fiber. I feel like an infomercial here, but it's true. You can see that that worked very well. And I had no problem pressing it, there's no scorch marks and it came out absolutely fine. And if you want, you can probably give that another little press because there is a little bit of puckering on the fabric, so go back, give it the steam, I'm holding the iron over it for longer than you probably would. And like I said, your fabric is absolutely fine. That's probably the ultimate test right there. Fleece, you never want to iron fleece because it will melt, it's a polyester. I gave it a squirt of steam to set the fibers or the threads, I'm going to open it up and press it, put my press cloth over that. Normally you would not use steam on fleece. And there you go, my seam is nice and flat, and I want you to notice there is no bleed through of the seam. You aren't batting down the fibers, you aren't leaving marks. And if you want to come back and give it a press on the right side, feel free. So there you have it, add a pressing cloth to your sewing toolbox, and I think you'll be glad you did, when you start seeing the wonderful results.