When I first started quilting, I never imagined that I would spend half my time ironing. I had to iron out the creases in my yardage before I cut my pieces. Then I had to iron every seam I sewed. It was laborious and hot. It was the worst part of quilting. Just as I was getting into the groove of sewing, I’d have to grab all my pieces and move them over to the ironing board (or, my case, a folded towel on a table). But then I saw something intriguing online: a mini iron. Not only are miniature versions of things cute, but would take up a lot less room on my sewing desk (making it much safer), and I wondered if it would work better for pressing seams. For 20 bucks. I snatched it up and after one quilt, here are my thoughts:
Cons
Let’s start with the negatives here, cause there ain’t many.
1. There is less ironing surface area. Who knew that a mini iron would be, well, smaller? If you are pressing a large area (like a stubborn crease in your yardage or making binding tape) this means more time with the heat. But I haven’t found that to significantly increase my overall ironing time. I’d say, overall my ironing time has been about the same, but with less fiddling (we’ll talk about that in the pros below).
2. I don’t use the steam feature, but some user reviews have reported water leakage. I bypass this by using a spray bottle if I need to get part of my fabric wet to work out a particularly difficult crease. If you wanted to use the steam feature, I would recommend trying to dump the water out of the iron before storing it.
Well, like I mentioned, there aren’t many cons. It’s honestly the works the same as other irons I’ve owned, just smaller. But let’s see why that’s helpful.
Pros
1. Maneuverability. I bought this iron specifically with piecing in mind. I love to make quilts with lots of fiddly piecing and I was looking to find an iron at better pressing the seams open. Well, this baby does it. It’s light and small with a nice point of the end that can really dive into the seam. My larger iron had this too, but it was always so big and clunky to move around. With the mini iron, your hand is much closer to the piece so you have more control. And when my brain goes a little mushy after 4 hours of quilting, I feel less nervous about getting burned.
2. It doesn’t take as much space on your ironing board. This may not be as much of an issue if you’re using a large ironing board for clothes, but I recently got a smaller wool ironing mat. I keep it right next to my sewing machine so I can iron as I go without having to move things around. It’s fantastic, especially since I live in a studio apartment where quilting space is hard to find.
3. It takes hardly any space to store. The cord wraps nicely around the handle and mine came with a little storage bag to protect it and keep it dust-free. I can now keep my iron in my little ready-box of quilting supplies instead of in my shoe bin (yeah, that happened…).
4. The heated surface is smaller. If you are piecing for a long time, your iron will be on for a long time too. This will heat your room up. If you’re quilting in the summer, you probably won’t be quilting long as you’d like. This could help.
5. It’s cheap and it works! For just over 20 bucks, I was able to get a little workhorse of an iron. It goes hot enough to press my cotton fabric. If you’re looking for a new iron, it’s cheaper or similar price to other, larger irons.
Overall, the pros turn this little guy is a big win! I’m a ‘mini’ fan. I haven’t had it for too long, so I don’t know how well it will hold up long term, but I’ll definitely let you know if it starts to fall apart. Let me know if you have any quilting goodies you can’t live without.
Sew on!