There's a lot of tools out there to help us as we sew and as you sew more and more you may find yourself collecting more and more of these tools. One tool that can be helpful, especially if you tend to do a lot of garment sewing is the tailor's ham. You can find and buy a tailor's ham at your local fabric store but it's also incredibly easy and for the most part cheaper just to make your own tailor's ham. While it may remind you of a small pillow, the tailor's ham should be really firm and is usually filled with sawdust or sand. The purpose of the tailor's ham is to help with pressing, so it's typically kept with the ironing board. While most of the time, you may find that a flat ironing board is fine for your pressing needs, the tailor's ham can really help with curved seams and darts. Pressing seams like princess seams will be easier when using the tailor's ham and helps give shape to your garment. Using these same steps you can also make similar items such as a tailor's roll, to help with pressing sleeves, or make your own custom shapes for pressing areas that are more difficult
9 thoughts on “Tailor’s Ham”
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thanks for the great tutorial! I made a ham and a ‘fingerling potato’ today. (‘potato’ I used a 75% and then trimmed down to about 3-4″ wide for smaller parts of bags and things.)
I want to Thank you for the pattern and video.
It turned out perfect.
Thank you,
Sandra Ruiz
Appreciate this tutorial and pattern. I have started sewing more, and find having one of these would help tremendously. Seems I press almost as much as I sew, lol! And have more and more curved areas in my sewing. Thanks again, can’t wait to make this!
How much sawdust do you need to buy to fill this pattern?
Thank heavens for you and this pattern!! I’ve been trying to find a tailor’s ham for weeks! It’s so much cooler to make my own!! Thank you!
This is so helpful, thank you!
OMG! Thank you sew much for the awesome tutorial and pattern. I whipped out a tailor’s ham this morning and stuffed it with cotton fabric scraps. I love it and it didn’t cost a thing but my time!
Seam allowance is built into the pattern, no need to add anything to it.
Has the download pattern included the seam allowance or should I add this to the pattern?
Thank you for everything I am learning from your videos. I am loving your site.
Sunny