A review of the OLISO-TG1600 SMART IRON

Choosing your iron is as important as choosing your sewing machine. A good sewist will set the ironing board up every time she sits down to sew. 

Why is this important?  Put simply if you press every seam and every dart as you sew them you will end up with a far superior garment to one you did not bother to press as you went along. It is the different between Handmade and Homemade . Handmade is special, it is bespoke, and it looks and feels great to wear. A garment which is not put together with care will never look professional. 
It stands to reason that your iron must fulfil all the functions needed to produce a high quality garment, this one hits the spot totally - and more
You will have taken a great deal of time and effort choosing your sewing machine and as your iron is equally as important it makes perfect sense to choose a high quality iron too, 
Your iron is used just as much as your sewing machine so why skimp on quality? 

I am very fortunate to have one of these fabulous irons, and I am totally in love with it
Do look at the information and specifications on Jaycotts.co.uk  Web site, where you can also order your own The Oliso-proplus-smart-iron

So, if you are fascinated by facts then just jump straight to this link otherwise come back and read it later. 

So, why is it important to choose a good iron to complement your sewing machine?
When I was at college the very first lessons were devoted to pressing and ironing. We learned the difference between each,  we learned how to shrink fabric before cutting it out and  the importance of pressing darts and seams without leaving an impression on the right side of the fabric. We also learned how to mould and manipulate fabric , we shrank one seam and stretched another and we learned how to put shape into the garment giving it a 3D appearance.  All this work for a whole term on the many wonderful effects we could achieve just with the humble iron.
 
This was deemed so important that we spent weeks just with our irons before sewing anything . I was studying Tailoring and it was easy  to see what a huge difference correct pressing makes to any garment. We never actually got close to using a sewing machine, everything was sewn by hand with the shaping achieved with our irons.  Which were the best we could possibly afford.
On the photograph above I have PRESSED some iron on interfacing onto a piece of fabric. Pressing is when you lift your iron on and off the fabric without sliding it ( which is IRONING) 
Pressing is used constantly during garment construction 
The large sole plate on The Oliso-proplus-smart-iron together with the adjustable heat settings give me the best adhesion I have experienced before, if you too are a sewist you will understand how important that is.  Quite often I need to go over and over the pattern piece I want to attach interfacing to but it just never seems to stay put. Using this Iron the interfacing is well and truly stuck , there are no bubbles or puckering. 

One thing I must mention is that in order to protect my ironing board and iron I always use a pressing mat and a pressing cloth when fusing anything together. 
I made my own ironing mat from batting and a Teflon oven sheet but you can purchase one here Pressing mat
I make my own pressing cloths, some in pure linen and others in pure cotton which I cut into squares and overlock, but again you can purchase one here Pressing cloth  A good pressing cloth is absolutely essential. 

Doing a lot of pressing means constantly lifting a heavy iron and putting it down again right? Wrong! Look at the base of this iron , it has "feet" which miraculously lower the sole plate onto the fabric with just the lightest touch and as soon as you let go it rises off the fabric , so you can then easily adjust the area you are pressing without doing any lifting whatsoever  - the iron does all the work

We often want to work with difficult fabrics, there are a lot of fabrics which are man made and could easily melt if the iron is too hot. I make a lot of dance costumes in very lightweight delicate fabrics, some of my skirts have over 6 metres of fabric in them. I always find it daunting pressing and ironing these fabrics  because a hole would be an absolute disaster

Luckily my new iron has easy to understand settings for all fabrics and with some trepidation I set my iron to the synthetic setting by just turning the dial , and then I touched the iron and it descended onto my fabric. I need not have feared, the delicate fabric was pressed and ironed totally  crease free within seconds. This prompted me to iron some of my costumes and for the first time ever I shall be crease free next week. Happy? You bet! I did not even use a pressing  cloth, I really wanted to test this fabric fully and I feel confident that this iron will not damage my lovely dance fabrics.

I then experimented with some pure wool suiting  and with the help of these Ironing rulers and a linen pressing cloth I created a perfect pleat . Linen can withstand very high temperatures which is why I use it for pressing wool. It means that I can obtain a perfect crease without scorching my fabric 

The iron is very easy to fill with water, and there is a large reservoir too which is something I am happy with , I find it annoying constantly unplugging and refilling my iron

It has a very long cord too, something I greatly appreciate.  Why are plugs always in the wrong place? And it swivels so no tangling 

The technical details are below , the link to purchase is 

The OLISO-TG1600-SMART-IRON

Or simply telephone to order on 01244 394099

Thank you for reading this post I do hope that you share my enthusiasm for this marvellous tool. 

I must quickly tell you a story.  My lifelong friend Chris was setting up his first home and he was going on and on about his new iron. In the end I said that I did not understand how anyone could get excited over an iron. I had to eat my words and apologise because I am totally enthralled with everything about this iron. It is so cleverly designed and the needs of sewists are understood and delivered . 

Angela

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