Use a Clapper for Wonderfully Crisp Flat Seams
This Garment-Making Tool is Perfect for Piecing!
If you’ve ever used tailor’s clappers when making garments you already know how great they are for achieving flat seams. They work just as well for quilt tops.
What does a clapper do exactly? As Suzy from Suzy’s Quilts explains:
“The wood itself absorbs the steam, and traps the heat inside of your fabric, instead of setting it free into the air of your sewing room. This is the magic of the Tailor’s Clapper. Your fabric needs the right combination of hot to cool, steamy to dry in order to make a perfectly flat seam. The TC makes it happen.”
Image from Lumberjocks.
To work its best you need a clapper of the right size and made from certain types of wood (get the clapper Suzy uses here). Suzy covers everything you need to know in order to use a clapper for piecing in the excellent article linked to below.
