I purchased a Steamfast travel iron from Amazon and so far I've been happy with it. No auto turn-off and it stays really hot. I haven't tried it with steam. I found a good tutorial for an ironing mat by googling, but it was so long ago I'm not sure I'll find it again, but I'll try. It uses something like Sheetrock for the base. It's very light and easy to take to classes and retreats.