Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Using a Pressing Bar for a Hem

               Back on August 20, the contents of a bag of items purchased on the World's Longest Yard sale was revealed.  Included in that treasure bag was a set of "Quilter's Press Bars." Set of 5. Something I said I would have never wished for because I didn't think I would have a need.
                For some reason, I grabbed them.  Turns out, I've already used one of them.





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I was asked to hem a wedding dress.
               Working on a wedding dress makes me nervous.  So I used tons of pins in the light chiffon like fabric. (Even the camera had a hard time working with the sheer fabric.)  The safety pins I used during the fitting.  Later I pinned at the turn.  Thank goodness I was able to use an iron on this fabric to crease the hem.  You can see where I marked the cutting line with an invisible ink marker.  After I cut on the dotted line, I took the safety pins out.
              Then I double turned and top stitched the 1/8 inch hem.  I worked very slowly & reminded myself to exhale a lot.
               Comparing my hem (the lower one) with the factory hem, I was relieved.
                 Moving on to the layer underneath which was not a taffeta & not a silk but at least not a sheer fabric.  It was slightly heavier.  I knew I wanted to cut 1/4 inch away from the crease of the hem I had turned up.  Then, for some reason I thought of the Pressing Bars.  One of them was 1/4 inch wide.  I laid the bar next to the crease line.
               Turned the fabric over the bar and held with my left hand.
               With my right hand, I slid the bar out and pressed the crease.
                Resulting in my cutting line!  This 1/4 inch was double turned to make a 1/8 inch hem.  Bummer, I forgot to take a picture!
Happy I have a set of 5 Pressing Bars!
Grab life when you can?


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Thanks to the FREE program

 Photoscape for downsizing & watermarking photo & other alterations to pictures.


1 comment:

  1. Nifty! I'd never really seen pressing bars before, but now I find myself wanting some! :)

    ReplyDelete

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