This story reminds me of working at Christmas with my sister doing commercial decorations. We had thousands of little red birds that always moved around on garlands while moving from the shop to set up requiring us to readjust everyone of them.
Once all install was done, we'd open a pack of birds at the workshop, take a hammer and red bird to the table and then beat it's little head off!
Since your hammer works ok therapy is what I would call it. :)

You could cover the mallets head with fabric and a rubber band if you are worried about it leaving a mark.

The lady at our local quilt shop had one of these and when I was taking a class there, she talked about smacking lumpy seams with it. Then she said, they make these for quilters but they are kind of expensive. So just go to Lowe's and buy a rubber mallet but make sure that the rubber part isn't the black rubber -- get the grayish one because it doesn't leave marks.

That's what I did -- got my mallet at Lowe's for about $3.

This was one of the first tips I learned when I started quilting. It works! I used a small real iron hammer, before the fabric hammer became available. I beat bumpy seams flat as a pancake. Cotton fibers don't break like glass or all the clothes beat on rocks or crushed on washboards would fall apart. LOL

I use mine occasionally, I bought mine at Sears in the tool dept. It was under half of what Nancys charges.

I took a decorative threads class from Susan Cleveland and she was so excited about that hammer. It works so well for that purpose. Really a block of wood works too, just that a hammer with the handle is a bit easier to use.

Sounds credible, you could always put a pressing cloth over the fabric before whacking it with the rubber mallet. I wonder if a meat whacker would work if you used a bit of padding? I have this meat tenderizer thingie with 4 different sides, one of them being flat, so might give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion, sounds like fun.

cool, I have heard of others using a hammer to flatten the seams

I remember an episode of Simply Quilts (many years ago!) when Kaye England (I think thats her name) told Alex to just take a hammer and whack it when Alex mentioned several seams coming together. If it's good enough for Kaye E, it's good enough for me!

Hmm......where did you get this at?