I do love a tool or gadget and I seem to collect a lot of them.
The Press Perfect aka Hot Hemmer is a tool I ordered online a few months ago and tried out earlier this week whilst working on a top. So what is it? Basically it is a thin rigid card that has seam allowances marked on it which you place on your fabric at the hemline and you iron your hem directly over it. On the packaging are instructions for ironing curves and mitred corners too. The Clover website has a great clip also demonstrating how to use the tool too. It is made out of nylon and feels like stiff felt, it doesn’t get any hotter than your fabric so you don’t burn yourself when you move it along the hemline each time.
I am usually the laziest hemmer, I don’t mark out seam allowances exactly I tend to just eyeball them. I tried it out on some knit fabric and it was brilliant. For my shorter seams such as this one I didn’t need to pin it once I had ironed it, the ironing was enough to hold it in place. To hem the bottom of the completed top once I had used this tool to iron the hem I hand tacked the hem using really long stitches, you didn’t need much to hold it as the ironing really kept it in place but the tacking was just extra security without using pins.
This is a tool I’m glad I brought and now that I have tried it out I will be using it on all my hems now. If you do have the opportunity to get your hands on one I can recommend that you do. I just Googled quickly and it was for sale on lots of sites, I got mine from Zebra Fabrics but they are out of stock at the moment.
Cassiy
stitchnsewcreates 