Burda Style For people who sew

I have a secret passion to share with you … I just love the job of pressing in the finish to the garments. I have to admit that I’ve only experienced the joy of pressing with a really good pressing iron. I used such an iron at the London College of Fashion short course that I took a year and a half ago. Recently, a very generous tailor who’s been working for me via my company has loaned a professional pressing iron to us, and the difference is night and day! Since we have several hundreds of garments to press after each manufacturing run, a good system has become a necessity. Everyone else tends to complain about the pressing, but I actually love it.

It calms me right down. You can’t press in a hurry – the results go all wonky. So you have to slow down to press. And now that I run a business (and don’t have much time to sew, sigh), pressing has become a great release. We could give the work up to another subcontractor, but I actually love the contact with the finished garment, and we can inspect the garments to our hearts content while pressing, looking for minor faults that may need fixing before the garment goes on sale.

Pressing requires concentration, but not thinking, another reason I love it. I spend way too much time thinking (worrying about the business, mostly!) and not enough just concentrating. And pressing requires holding the fabric in your hands for long periods of time – it’s almost like holding your hands in water, it feels so good. Also, pressing turns a creased, rumpled garment into a shiny new item, which is absolutely fabulous. Admittedly, after pressing all day ya’ do get tired! But so does doing everything else to keep the business rolling forward!

Are there others like me who love the pressing? Tell me about your experiences!

Dec 4, 2011, 02.37 AM by gedwoods