Plush Making Tutorial - Ironing Seams

Ironing seams is really important when it comes to making clothing, as it makes things look clean and professional. My guess is that people don’t think to iron seams when sewing plushies, too!

I don’t iron every seam when I make a plush; but I do iron every seam that joins together two different colors. The overall effect is subtle but will help add to the overall ‘finished’ quality of your plush.

​Here we have a piece of a Furret arm.  The seam joining the cream fabric and brown fabric has not been pressed. It’s not as easy to tell through pictures but the piece doesn’t lie perfectly flat and the areas around seam is a bit ‘raised’.

Set your iron to the polyester setting. If you don’t have settings, use a lower heat setting. You can also use steam. We won’t be ironing the minky for very long, so it won’t get burned or damaged.

Here is where you should trim your seams. Clip any corners/curves if necessary. I’m guessing that most people don’t use big seam allowance on plushies - I sew a ¼ inch seam allowance so I don’t have to trim every seam. I didn’t trim this one here since it’s already small. Turn the piece right side down on your ironing board. You can see how ‘fluffy’ the seam is.

Iron the wrong side of the fabric, moving with the nap, not against. This is important. If you move the wrong way the heat can permanently affix the fiber in the wrong direction. It won’t take much to make the seam flat. You can hit it with steam once too.

Now the seam on the inside lays flat.

And the seam on the outside looks crisper! Again, it’s a subtle overall effect, but it will add up :)

If you'd like to see more tutorials or have a request for one in particular, let me know!