I remember all clothing seams were ironed opened. And my grandmother use seam tape on most of them. I don't know what the tape was for but it was pretty, like lace.

Seam tape was used to finish seams much like we use a serger now. Just made them prettier.

Seam tape was used to keep fabric edges of seam allowances from unraveling, thus seam tape or lace tape was used because its edges were finished. Also used were Hong Kong finishes.

I can remember my great aunt, finger pressing seams open on the side of her treadle sewing machine. She taught me as well as my mother to sew. Each of 3 sisters were taught different skills. My gran was the cook, her 2 sisters one sewed the other knitted and crocheted.they had few items to help them.

My iron
 

I herited/spared from the dumpster this little jewel. As I understand, it has a compartment for hot coals. Growing up in a rural area, my relatives gardened in the summer and quilted in winter. I can imagine this being used in winter months fireside.

Ooh, that's a beautiful antique iron!

Got an old liquid fuel powered iron. I'll bet she thought it was such an improvement over her old coal burner iron. LOL

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...psaeuv2yeb.jpg

Thanks Annie68. I would like to know more about it. My mother in law was claimed by dementia before I could ask. Her father was a medic in France in WWI so I wonder if he brought it back.

The blue iron was heated by using white gas. You had a pump on the tank so it used air pressure to difuse the gas some way. My mom wouldn't let me use this one. But it was sure a improvement from having to heat on the stove.

When I was little we lived with my grandma while my dad was overseas. Grandma had a wood stove in the basement and 3 irons that she used to set on it until they were hot and then used them to iron clothes (she did not quilt). I spent a lot of time in the basement helping her when mom was working. I would take an iron off of the stove and bring it to her, then take the cooled one back to the stove -- the irons were so heavy I remember holding them with 2 hands and worrying about dropping them. After a few months she got me a child size ironing board and I got to iron the old handkies using one of those irons -- it was real easy to scorch clothes if the irons got too hot. I was 5-7 at the time -- can't imagine what would happen to me if I let a child do something like that today. She also had a washer that you had to feed the clothes into a wringer to get the water out of the clothes -- I stood on a box and turned the crank since I was too little to reach the wringer.