My coral polka dot skirt from Simplicity 3688 is the first project for which I could fully incorporate the pressing techniques of the Pressinatrix as discussed in a post on her blog.

I am happy to report that I think I did a pretty good job of pressing, and her techniques made a noticeable difference.

When pressing the seams open, I used my June Tailor Tailor Board without the padding. It has several pressing surface to match pretty much any detail you need to press. I used the skinny straight edge to press my seams open. I decided to do that because I didn’t want to take the chance that the impression of my overcasting stitches might be pressed into the fabric if I used a wider surface. Turns out, pressing against the hard surface seemed to really improved my results.

While there is a stuffed seam roll to use for this very task, a number of people have found success with half a large wooden dowel. Believe me, on my next trip to the hardware store, I’ll be looking for one.

I figured I must be doing something right with my technique when I had finished pressing and realized that I couldn’t really feel the line of stitching in the seam. It was perfectly flat and smooth. By the time I’d sewn the three front panels together, I didn’t seem to have three pieces, just one big one.

Now the coral polka dot is a quilting cotton, not terribly challenging as far as pressing goes. But once I finish the matching top for this skirt, I’ll be moving on to a silk top, Colette Patterns’ Sencha, which is one of my projects in the Fall Palette Challenge. (At the rate I sew, it may be the only one!) Sewing silk will be challenging in many ways, not the least of which is pressing.

With silk, there’s just nowhere to hide.

Tomorrow, the finished skirt, which ended up just as pretty on the inside as on the outside.

Tagged: June Tailor Tailor Board, Pressinatrix, pressing