How to Press Quilt Fabric the Right Way for the Brave Beginner Quilt Course
How to Press Quilt Fabric the Right Way (It Is Not the Same as Ironing)
If you have been treating your iron like a tool you push across fabric, you are not alone. Most people come to quilting with ironing habits, and ironing is exactly the wrong technique for quilt fabric. In this lesson of the free Brave Beginner Quilt Course from Jittery Wings Quilt Company, Mitzie Schafer teaches studio assistant Kelly the difference between pressing and ironing, why that difference matters, and how to get a full fat quarter bundle prepped and ready to cut. This is one of those foundational skills that quietly makes every other step easier.
Pressing vs. Ironing: What Is the Difference?
Pressing means setting the iron down on the fabric, holding it there long enough for the heat to do its work, lifting it, and moving it to the next spot. Ironing means sliding the iron across the fabric the way you would on a shirt.
For a garment with seams and hems already holding everything in place, sliding the iron around is fine. For a loose piece of quilting fabric, especially a small cut like a fat quarter, sliding pushes the fabric out of shape. It loosens the weave and distorts the piece so it is no longer the size and shape you need it to be. When you press instead of iron, your fabric stays true and your cuts stay accurate.
Starch vs. Steam: Which One Should You Use?
Mitzie uses starch, specifically Best Press sprayed through a misting bottle, and she skips steam entirely when pressing fabric she has not pre-washed. The reason is simple. Water causes unwashed cotton to shrink. If you mist your fat quarters with water or use a steam setting on your iron, you are essentially pre-washing them unevenly, which defeats the purpose of skipping that step.
If you did pre-wash your fabric, water and steam are perfectly fine. But if you are following Mitzie's approach and skipping pre-washing, use starch. It gets the wrinkles out, stiffens the fabric slightly, and is especially helpful when you are working with bias edges like triangles or diagonal cuts, where the fabric wants to stretch.
Any starch works. Best Press is what Mitzie uses, but the brand matters less than the method.
The Wool Pressing Mat and the Clapper
Two tools come up in this lesson that beginners may never have heard of. The first is a wool pressing mat. Mitzie uses a wool pressing mat instead of an ironing board because wool holds heat and reflects it back into the fabric. That means your fabric is heated from both sides simultaneously, producing a flatter, crisper press than on a standard ironing board surface.
The second tool is a clapper, a solid block of wood used to trap heat in a seam after you press it. You press the seam with your iron, then immediately set the clapper on top and hold it there. The wood traps heat inside the fabric, helping the seam set flat and stay flat. Mitzie does not use the clapper when prepping fat quarters, but it becomes useful later when you are pressing seams open during piecing.
What Is a Selvage and Why Does It Matter?
When you buy fabric off the bolt, it has two selvage edges, the finished edges that run the length of the fabric. On a fat quarter, the selvage typically shows the brand name, fabric line, designer, and fiber content. Some selvages are decorative, and quilters save them for other projects. But the selvage itself should never end up inside your quilt. The weave at the selvage is tighter and behaves differently from the rest of the fabric, which can cause problems in your finished quilt.
When you press your fat quarters, keep your selvages aligned on the same side of the stack. This sets you up to cut efficiently, as you will clean up that edge before making your pattern cuts.
How to Press a Fat Quarter Bundle Efficiently
Mitzie presses one fat quarter at a time and stacks them in order as she goes, keeping the color flow sequence intact. For patterns that depend on color placement, staying organized from the pressing step forward saves time and reduces mistakes later.
Once each fat quarter is pressed, she stacks them with selvages aligned and one long edge lined up as closely as possible. When it is time to cut, she can trim up that edge cleanly without wasting fabric, and she can cut two or three at a time once your skills build a little. Pressing them together and stacking them neatly before you cut is what makes that possible.
The short version: spray with starch, press one fat quarter at a time, stack them in order with selvages aligned, and you are ready to cut.
Next Up: Learning to Cut
Once your fat quarters are pressed and stacked, the next lesson covers how to use a rotary cutter to cut your fabric accurately. If you have not already grabbed the free Sidewalk Cracks pattern, sign up at jitterywingsquiltco.com/brave-beginner-quilt-course so you can follow along with every lesson.
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