Why I Don't Press My Seams Open

I am going to wade into pressing seams open or to the side debate today.  People feel very strongly about doing it one way or the other and I am definitely in the camp of pressing to the side.  I love nesting my seams to achieve perfectly lined up blocks.

Let's start with a simple four patch patch block.  When I press the two rows, I'm going to  press the top one towards the red and the bottom one towards the copper, so that they are pressed in opposite directions. 

When you press your seam to the side, it makes a little ridge where the fabric has folded over the seam allowance.  Because I pressed them in opposite directions, the ridges are on opposite sides of each other for each row. 

I take those little ridges and hug them together and make them best friends so the little ridge of the red has become best friends with the little ridge of the copper. When I snuggle them up close,  you can see that that's gonna make this line up perfectly.

Then I take my pin  and I put my pin in at an angle going from this top corner, making sure I'm catching the seam allowance fabric on the back, across to the bottom corner.

Putting the pin in this way allows me to sew all the way to where the seam is before I have to take my pin out.

I do not sew over my pins.  I know that many people say it's fine and you can do it, but I've had too many times where the needle has hit my pin and it's bent. I have also had a couple of times where it has broken my needle and the end of my needle has gone flying off.  So I prefer to not sew over my pins.

Once I have sewn across my block to sew the rows together, I open up the block and voila - perfectly aligned points! 

One final thing about pressing to the side versus open.  I have also found that pressing open sometimes results in my seams pulling apart and my blocks coming undone as I piece my top.  Usually if I have this problem, I lower my stitch length.  But I also notice that I rarely have this issue when I press to the side.  So that is another reason I don't press open.

How about you?  Do you press to the side or open?  Share in the comments.

Prefer a video?  Watch how I nest my seams below: