Wool Ironing Mat Review – Comparisons With an Ironing Board

This year, I have heard a few bits and pieces about wool ironing mats – these squishy, felted wool mats that supposedly are more efficient at pressing your fabric and sewing as the wool retains the heat so it presses from the top and bottom in one go. I’m not going to lie, I kinda gave them an eye squint of mild skepticism, but also the curiosity of “I guess they must somehow work, right? Because I know wool has some kind of magical heat conducting properties with clothes and doonas.” Oh yes, my inner monologue gets quite scientific, ha. Well, spoiler alert, I’m here to tell you that they do!

Jon from Precision Quilting Tools contacted me and asked if I’d like to review their wool ironing mat, to which I of course said yes (see aforementioned curiosity). While I was waiting for it to arrive, I had read Amy’s review of the mat, and my eagerness increased. I really wanted to compare with my ironing board as to how the wool ironing mat truly performs.

The project tasked to this scientific endeavour were the Ripples blocks for my quilting bee queen, Eleri. While I was making the half-square triangles, I pressed some on the wool ironing mat, and some on my regular ironing board. There is a difference!

The HST on the left was pressed on the wool ironing mat, and the one on the right was pressed on the normal ironing board. Both were pressed for the usual amount of time that I do. But you can see that the seam on the left HST is sitting much flatter! And in case you’re thinking that I somehow fudged the results by smoothing the left HST more on top of the mat (which also makes an amazing design mat too – nice and grippy!), I can tell you that I didn’t, but here’s one of HSTs on the table top instead. Left HSTs were pressed on the wool ironing mat, and the right HSTs were pressed on the ironing board.

And if you’d like a video close up for further reassurance, check out the Reviews highlights on my Instagram Stories where I get the phone up nice and close.

You can certainly feel the difference, too. The fabric feels more crisp, almost as if it had been starched; it holds the ironed flatness really well. Which makes sewing the HSTs together much easier! And then when it came to pressing open the seams between the rows, ironing over the bulkier seam intersections was a little easier too, having the added heat from underneath.

Other thoughts… The wool ironing mat itself is very lightweight, making it extremely portable. They would make for brilliant ironing stations at sewing days or retreats because of the lightweight portability. They’re also quite thick, over 1/2″ thick, so you don’t have any worries about the heat getting through the other side and damaging surfaces. Another bonus, as I mentioned before, is that the felted wool also makes for the perfect “design board”. And as such, after a lot of use, you will want to use a lint roller to get any loose threads off of it. Like Amy, I did occasionally get a faint smell of warm wool, but certainly nothing unpleasant – more like warm clothes pulled fresh from the dryer.

The mats come in three different sizes – 9″ x 9″, 17″ x 17″, and 17″ x 24″. I received the larger size, and it’s perfect for having a table top ironing station, like I do, rather than a big ironing board. It’s also a good size as you can easily press fat quarters on it! The smaller sizes would be better for having a personal, portable ironing mat for sewing days or retreats. So if your friends and family are asking for what to get you for Christmas… well, I know of one great idea!

 

I received the mat for the purposes of review. All opinions and wonky HST points are 100% my own.