Ironing

A Little Bit Twisted

          Working in a quilt shop I found out there is more than one way to iron a seam.  My mom taught me to always press the seam to one side.  At the quilt shop, though, I learned about pressing the seam open, meaning one piece of the seam’s fabric goes to one side and the other piece goes to the other side.

Now that I know about and have ironed open seams, I must say that it is not my favorite method.  All too often, I find myself pulling the seams apart when I iron this way. 

Despite that fact, I have found that sometimes ironing the seams open is best because of how they are going to line up with the seams of the other pieces.  There have been times where no matter how much I plan, ironing the seams to one side results in my eventually having to twist the seam so it can line up with another piece.  Other times there are so many seams that ironing them to one side makes what I’m working on bulky and difficult to sew properly.

                Both of these situations are where ironing seams open comes in handy.  It creates a much flatter seam connection, and it can be done without any twisting.