I've heard all my life that when you sew you are suppose to press your seams open. Somehow I don't get the impression that is necessarily true for quilting. Is there a 'rule of thumb' for pressing seams open for quilting?

I always press mine towards the dark color or follow pattern directions. I am going to try pressing them open when they intersect and see if that takes out some of the thickness. I don't think there is a rule or anything. You can do them either way. I think it started when quilters handsewn the pieces together, to hide the stitches.

When you sew clothing seams open unless you have a serger but in quilting press your seams to the dark side of the fabric.

I almost always press to one side. When I press them open I usually burn myself with the steam :-D. I also like being able to make the seams nest so I get great points.

I press open if I have lots of seams, press to the dark otherwise. No reason, just what I do.

Hi,

I was taught to press to the dark.

Karen

I do it both ways.

Each block sorta tells me how I want to press the seams, do what works best for you :D:D:D

I try to press mine toward the darker fabric whenever I can.

Pressing seams closed strengthens the seam as there's less stress. Makes a difference over time and use. that's my two cents worth. now back to sewing!

That's the way I was taught to do it.

I prefer mine pressed open. Many times when joining blocks, if seams are pressed to one side, the seams get sewn together and it causes too much bulk for me.

For the most part, I press mine toward the dark side.

If you're making a pinwheel, you need to press them all in the same direction (sort of like in a circle) to avoid a lot of bulk where all the pieces meet in the center.

Some patterns say to press all seams open. Deb Tucker's Hunter's Star pattern says to press all seams open. This pattern creates an 8 pointed star and pressing the seams open in this pattern does help reduce bulk where the star points meet.

Before I throw in my 2 cents worth, the good news is that there are no "Quilt Police" :D

I agree with [i]amma[i/]. I almost always press to one side. I try to press to the dark, but sometimes it does not always work out and is too bulky. The block tells me otherwise. I included two shots of a BOM that I am doing. The back shows most pressed to the dark but there are several intersections that I pressed to the light. You can see from the front that there are no show-able results from the pressing to the light. There are times that I press open when all else fails to reduce the bulk.

Do it however it is comfortable for you and remember this is fun!

when I press them open they sometimes unstitch themselves on the ends - a big pain if you are making a large quilt. If I am finishing a piece by handquilting I have been known to press open so I don't have to stitch through the thick parts

Life is sweet asked about my seam intersections. The seam allowance is not cut. That is the "thing" that Eleanor Burns does where she actually opens the incoming seams inside the seam allowance and once open, you can have each seam going in a swirl around the intersection. It really cuts down on the bulk when you are doing stars like the one I posted earlier in this thread.

Here is a closeup of one of them.

That's an excellent picture showing how seams should be pressed almost in a circular motion. This works great with pinwheels to avoid lots of bulk in the middle.

A friend showed me how to do this, but I couldn't figure out how to describe it. Thanks.

It is really cool and a great way to reduce bulk, but I was not sure that my explanation was clear - but I hope that others understand what I was trying to describe.

hi Betty, thanks for the explanation of the "swirled" seams. I'll try it in the morning. Or maybe tonight 'cause I'm anxious to try it out.

I press open many times as the top lays flatter, but sometimes I press to the darker fabric too. It really depends on the pattern, intersections etc. The only "wrong" way is to press the seams to the light side where dark fabric shows through. Then, it looks bad.

I do both, usually in the same quilt, depending on the seam. Coming to quilting from garment sewing, it felt a little weird and cheaty to press seams to the side at first, but it is definitely a time saver. I will say that I think open seams usually look nicer and lie flatter, but sometimes I am in a hurry. ;)

I just did a poll about this very topic on a long arm chat site. We discovered many blue ribbon winners now press open. In the past, they pressed to the dark side whenever possible. Now they do what is best for the quilt and reduces bulk.

Our machines, thread and fabrics are so much better and stronger than the handquilting of decades ago, and it's no longer a matter of strength. Quilts all hold up fine either way. Pressing open allows for a flatter quilt, with flatter seam lines, easier piecing/matching and nicer quilting in many respects. There are no quilt police - even though most of us (me included!) were taught we would go to jail if we did anything other than 'press to the dark'. It just doesn't hold true anymore :)

And so, I do whatever is best for the quilt. There are no rules...just myths :) It's all good :)

I do whatever strikes my fancy, to be honest....
I never did understand the 'strength' point of to one side, considering for the most part, my clothes have a lot more stress put on them than a quilted object and they are pressed open...

In garment sewing you use 5/8" seam allowance, in quilting you use 1/4" seam allowance.

Pressing seams open like in garment making is coming back to the quilting world. It helps not having all that bulk at intersections.

I finger press or use my wooden iron to press open before going to the iron to prevent burning my fingers. Then I steam press, not iron the back of the block, then flip it over to make sure I have not pressed any pleats into the front seams making sure all seams are flat, then I iron the front.

Seams pressed open are much easier to quilt by hand also. Ask me how I know this. :roll:

If you want to "stitch in the ditch" when you quilt press them closed. I learned the hard way - if you press them open, there is no ditch!

You've been getting lots of good advice; here's my two cents worth: Press closed, to the darker side. Better yet, buy patterns that tell you which side to press toward. Really good patterns have been tested, somethimes more than once, before they are sold and should include pressing directions and how to "spin" 4-way seams. These extra tips make construction the piece so much easier.

I don't know what you mean...stitching in the ditch is sewing in the seam line. There is a seam line when you press fabrics both open or to the side. ??

This is what I was told to do at a quilting class. And it works great.

I learned to always press them to the dark side.

As a sewer I was always taught to press the seams open on garments but every book and pattern almost always tells you to press toward the dark to help lock the seams.

I you press them open the seam line is just the stitching so it would be like stitching over stitching.

I always press open. Just remember to make the stitch length shorter. I don't like the bulk when sewing the seams together.

I was taught this as well. Always press to the dark unless there's a directional decision to be made.

If you are pressing your seams open, a great way to do it is to use one of those "ham's" like they use for making clothing. It makes a nice open seam and you will not burn your fingers. If I know that I will be doing a heavy quilting on the quilt, I will use open seams. I always use an open 1/2" seam to piece my backings. I was taught to do that by a long arm quilter.

let the block or quilt tell you which way. topper

I press for construction and for me that means pressing my seams open when I have two triangle patches where the points will come together.

I wish I could figure out how to press each piece before I try to sew the rows together. I usually wind up with some of the seams going the wrong direction and wind up repressing. Sometimes you also have to take out a few stitches which really makes me mad at myself -- slows me down too. That may be my problem, not stopping to figure it all out before assembling the block.

Keep seam closed and press to the darker fabric.