Covering Your Wool Pressing Mat and Making a Pressing Board

Hi, it's Jason from Purple Cats Quilting. Today we're going to talk about a few pressing things, but we're going to talk about covering our wool mat or making a pressing board. So quite a while ago we used to have classes where we had a pressing board for everybody in our class, and Mr. Cats made these. I'm going to show you one. It was, we did an envelope style cover, and we took a piece of plywood, just a quarter inch, half inch piece of plywood, we covered in worm and natural batting, and then we made these little slip pillow slip covers. We could take them off and give them a wash if we needed them. So I wanted to show you. Here's one that's been very well used. I think somebody might have left their iron on there. Sometimes when you're using Best Press and you get lots, they get kind of sticky. So this is a great idea. I want to show you how I did it today. I did my wool mat, my large wool mat. I took the measurement of my wool mat, and I added two inches onto the width, and I added about four inches to the length. And so that makes a nice tight fitting. You can adjust it to your mat. Makes a nice tight fitting cover that I can take off and wash now. So if I get a little bit of applique pressing stuff, like Stima Seam on there, or I maybe scorch it with iron, or I get some Best Press on there, it gets quite a build up because I use my pressing solution quite a bit, I can take it off and throw it in the wash. So I'm going to show you how I did it. So it's just a little sleeve on the end. You can pick some of that pretty fabric that you have in your stash and use it, and see it every day. Last week I recovered my ironing board, and it just gives me pure joy to see that bright, happy fabric. So what I did is I took a piece of a width of fabric, placed on the fold, and I took the width of my pressing mat, and I added two inches. And for the length of my pressing mat, I added about five inches, four to five inches. Then I went to my sewing machine, right sides together, and because my pressing mat is rounded, I rounded out the corners, and I sewed a three-eighths inch seam all the way around the outside. Then I used pinking shears just to finish it so it doesn't fray. I used pinking shears on the end, turn it right side out, slip it onto your mat, and that's as easy as it is. You can put it on a small mat. I've just given you the rough measurements because now you can choose which one for your size of mat. So I'm just going to show you a couple pressing things. We have these beautiful pressing boards. I like to keep these. I have a Costco side table, and that's what I keep beside my sewing machine, and I like to keep all of my little projects. When I'm doing, like, piecing that has to be pressed open, or I have to sew and press, sew and press, sew and press, I always have those right beside my sewing machine so I have a little station. Another good use for this is if you're going to retreat. So I have my little iron, my little mini iron, on the little table beside me. I usually have my pressing bar. You can have a pressing cutting mat, just a small cutting mat, or the other one I really like is this rotary cutting mat if I'm doing, like, half square triangles. So I'm just going to show you a couple things with my pressing bar, just how that works. You just, if you're pressing open, a lot of my patterns now, modern patterns and patterns, they call for you to press your seams open, especially tulip paint. So I just lay it over the pressing bar. I use this Precision, Acorn Precision piecing products, and it comes in a little pan, and the liquid is in the pan. You lay that on your seam before you press, and it just gives a really nice open, you can see how hard a press that gives. Another thing that I did this past week is, I usually use, like, a little tiny refillable bottle when I'm going to retreat or at my station, but this week I went to the dollar store and I got a Plant Mister, and this has worked just great because it's got a wide base so it doesn't tip off my ironing board, and it gives just a nice light spray. And you can see I added a sticker to it to make it pretty. So now I'm pressing this, I can throw this on my cutting mat with my ruler, and I can press around. So let's just see here, I'm making a wonky block. So I can press, I've got my rotary mat, I can cut, there you go. So there's my wonky block, pressed open with my pressing solution, works great. Pressing open with a pressing bar is just a really nice tool because it folds over that round edge. So like, comment, and share. I'd love to see your pictures, see some feedback, let me know. Have a great day!