Testing the Iron

I'm home! So after cleaning up my sewing room I thought I'd better test my new iron that I had picked up at the hobby shop.

I tested to see if it would iron out the wrinkles, press open a seam, press seams to one side and iron on freezer paper.

I tried a medium heat setting first but wasn't happy with that so I turned up the heat to almost maximum. Then it was hot!

It did ok on the wrinkle test. I pulled out a scrunched scrap from my scrapbox and it did not too bad. It didn't get rid of every wrinkle but I spritzed it with water and it was wrinkle free in no time. So far so good!

Then I took some 2"square scraps to sew together. Here is my seam pressed open...I loved how the irons' pointy tip zipped right through that seam. It was a nice clean press.  Even better! I sometimes like to press seams open especially on little quilts so I can already see that the iron will be useful.

Next was the test to press seams to one side...it was ok...but I'll use my regular iron for this task. The larger the area to press the less well it worked. When I started pressing seams that were overlapping it didn't have the heat to get a really flat seam.

Here is a closeup and it's fine...but...

Finally I ironed on some freezer paper and it worked well for that. It would be really great when doing small pieces. With a big iron they sometimes get caught and get turned upside down. I don't think this would happen with this little iron.

Now what about the product itself? It is definately a man tool. There is nothing pretty about it. And it has some things I really don't like. It's handle stays nice and cool but...if you touch ANY other part of it while it's hot then you'll be hot too. That includes the dial to regulate the heat setting. Ouch! And it includes the metal section of the handle. If your hand slips down or if you reach out your finger for more leverage (without thinking about it!) then you'll have a hot little finger. And one more thing..the little stand is HOT too!

I also learned that I missed my steam..I know many people don't use steam when pressing seams for a quilt but I am a careful presser and I LOVE steam. For me it makes a difference.

So will I keep using it? Sometimes...when I am working on a small quilt where I am pressing seams open I will and when I want a little iron next to me at my sewing machine I will. And it might be useful for paperpiecing as well.  But for general use I won't use it too often. I am a little disappointed.

So now I will be starting the next challenge...`The Quilt Show` Espisode 105

Happy Stitching!