Way back in July I mentioned that I was using the
Steady Betty Pressing Surface. It's one of my favorite new tools.
I have the original 16x16" version, for me it's not too heavy, I find it easy to move around. Apparently they have a new version that is half the weight of my original one, so if the weight would be an issue for you, that might be another reason to give this a try. I could see bringing this to a retreat.
I keep it on the little rack that is part of the legs of my ironing board. Whenever I'm
pressing and
*not ironing* I use it. That's what this thing really helps me with. As you probably already know, when you're piecing, you have to get those seams opened up and the allowances going in one way or the other without distortion. Moving the iron is necessary, but I'm only moving the seam allowances, and the pressing surface holds the rest of the fabric.
I've been using it with Best Press as I'm piecing all those blocks for the City Sampler, but that's because the additional stiffness helps me with more accurate sewing with the smaller sized blocks.
For final pressing the Best Press usually isn't necessary.
The surface is a soft but grippy foam material, there is some plush or give to it, but not too much. It does help with dissipating the heat from the iron quickly.
Only a few drawbacks I can think of, you can't leave anything on top of the pressing surface or the impression tends to stay for quite a while. I left my iron on it overnight and the dents took a couple days to go away. I don't know if one of those dents could become permanent or not. I'm not sure how durable this surface will be, I can imagine it would tear or be cut pretty easily and that wouldn't be something you could repair. So I'm making sure to not have any scissors around the thing when I'm using it.
Two thumbs up from me on this one!
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