joe'smom

I've used Best Press for years with no problems. My routine has been to press a seam from the front, spritz it with the Best Press, turn it over and press from the back. Lately I have noticed faint staining on some pieces of fabric with a pure white background. It seems that the staining appears when I am pressing from the back after spritzing the front with the Best Press. I also spray my fabrics before pressing for cutting, but I haven't noticed any of the staining in those instances. The phenomenon seems completely arbitrary. If there are five units to press, only one or two out of the five will show these stains. Even more curious is that this only started recently, even though I have been using the same gallon of Best Press for months with no problems. I then switched to a brand new, smaller bottle (unscented) and the stains appeared again. I can't think of anything that has changed in my sewing room; I'm using the same iron and the same pressing surfaces. I recently washed a pieced block that had some of this staining on the background pieces, and it did come out, so at least there's that. I wondered if anyone would have any ideas about why this is suddenly happening now when it never has before. I hate to stop using the Best Press because it's so convenient and gives such good results. I think I'll have to stop at least with whites unless I can solve this mystery.

Stitches23

It may not be the Best Press; it may be the iron. Do you use steam? Hope you solve the mystery soon.

HouseDragon

It could be "invisible" stains on your pressing surface.

Try pressing on a different surface and see if the stains appear.

HTH!

Tartan

Iron a piece of white freezer paper to your ironing surface to check if that is the problem.

QuiltE

Best Press is my "friend" ... have never had any problems.

Some thoughts to consider ...
* residue on the ironing board?
* residue on the sole of the iron?
* gunk coming from the steam reservoir?
* by chance do you use starch at times as well?

Rhonda K

I run my iron over a white washcloth that is wet. It helps clean the iron. The other tip is to allow the best press to dry a bit before ironing the block.

joe'smom

Thanks for the suggestions! I have put an old diaper over my wool mat, have changed the cover on the ironing board and got out a new iron tonight. Tomorrow I'll iron some freezer paper to the cover I removed tonight to see if that was the problem, and I'll try the washcloth for cleaning the other iron.

eparys

It just may be your ironing surface. I had this issue recently. While the surface did not look "dirty", when I stripped off the layers (I use a board covered with batting and muslin), the underneath layers were. New batting and new muslin later all is fine.Good luck!!

Jordan

I use Best Press all the time and have no trouble. Sometimes my iron will spit out residue and leaves a stain so I empty my iron every time I am done sewing for the day. Good luck to you

joe'smom

I've had no trouble so far using a new iron and a new pressing surface. I'll eventually try the other iron on some white scraps to see if that iron was the problem, or if it was the old (dirty) cloth.