Just wondering...
 

As I sit here casually sewing tiny pieces and equally tiny blocks together and using the tiny iron I have set up right next to my machine so I don't have to get up to press between each seam, it got me to wondering what our fore-mothers did when they pressed. I picture their heavy cast iron IRON, sitting on top of the wood stove in the little log cabin, but wonder about the PRESSING process back then. I certainly have heard/read more about the quilting and piecing process than the ironing. Anyone know?

Many used a bone folder or finger pressed the fabric back. The way we do things today is so much more efficient and time-saving. Years ago they hand sewed everything and used scraps from other projects to make quilts with Cardboard templates, drawing around them and eye balling the quarter inch and dutifully sewing each with a needle and thread. That is why when you see a very old spectacular qulit the hours and hours of work should amaze you. It sure does me. What takes us days/weeks took them months.

I too, learned to quilt in the dark ages of cardboard templates, so am familiar with this process, but I'd just never given any thought to the historical pressing aspect of my favorite craft!

My grandmother had a small smooth piece of wood. It looked like a tongue depressor on one end and was pointed on the other. The pointed end she used to turn points and corners, the rounded end she used to press down her seams. She held the seam against a table top and rubbed the wood over it until it was fairly flat. You can still buy wood presses. They also had a wooden presser that looked more like an iron and they would sort of pound down their seams. If you click on the little pictures you can see both. https://www.etsy.com/listing/219505364/cherry-wood-sewing-stilletoseam-presser

When I visited the house where my Grandmother grew up, I saw all sorts of neat things in the attic including an iron that was heats on the stove-top. I am so glad that the days of cardboard cut templates are a part of my past. I believe that the rotary cutter, acrylic rulers and self healing mats are the best inventions for us quilters since the sewing machine was created.

My grandmother used the handle of a knife. My grandfather planed it to a wedge for her.

I doubt any of the utility quilt pieces were ironed. Maybe a wedding quilt was given special attention.

Finger pressing was usually adequate for hand pieced blocks while it was a work in progress,

very interesting. i imagine the finger pressing did a good job. i imagine it was crisp enough. Maybe they ironed as a whole cloth, and then when cut down to pieces, pressing wasn't needed.

I learned to iron with a sad iron, almost as heavy as I was, so I doubt that our ancestors fired up a stove and pressed seams each time they stitched a seam.

My mother must have been a "modern" woman. I remember her having my child size ironing board next to her sewing machine with her travel iron. She did not quilt but did all kinds of other sewing.

Linda in MO

We had an old family friend who made beautiful patchwork aprons with the squares set on point and the aprons looked like upside down tulips. She sewed everything using her treddel (don't know why I can't spell it, her stitches were precise just like her seams. I learned a lot from her, but unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to her teach me to quilt. Lots of things were harder back then, like doing your washer in the old wringer washing machine, hanging clothes out on the clotheslines, and in winter, having them hang up to try on temporary clotheslines in the living room, the warmest part of the house. Although mom would hang the sheets out even in winter where they would freeze, then she would bring them in to hang in the living room to dry; but they sure smelled good.

I remember seeing my DGM setting in her rocking chair hand piecing her quilt tops and don't remember ever seeing her get up to press anything until the top was finished. DM pressed as she went and taught me to do the same.

I have never thought the good old days of sewing were all that great myself. When someone tells me their great grandmother was a real quilter with a frame hanging in the living room I smile and say Bless her heart, that's all she knew back then.

My great grandmother was a seamstress - she sewed clothes and made hats. She was a small woman (4'9") and she had an iron that was a bit smaller than the travel irons of today. I was told she used it for small areas, it set on the stove. Since my mom sewed for us, she ended up with it, I have it now. Unfortunately she is not around to ask, but I cannot image that she would sew a seam and get up to iron it.

Good comments about working with the fabric as the quality of the fabric was crisper in days gone by. I have some 50's fabric that has such a good "hand" that it is a joy to work with..

When I learned to sew we did hand sewing wiyh cardboard templates.

My mom did the exact same thing, as did my Grandma. OT, I agree that Some of the unused words are hard to spell. English is the hardest language to learn for speaking and writing. Treadle is the word you were looking for. Hope this helps. :). All the best to you, Marge!

I don't remember my mother ironing ny of hers when putting them together. I know she used sandpaper to make templates because they didn't slip.

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.