Darts and curved seams are meant to shape fabric to fit over a curved body. So it’s best to press them over a pressing ham, which has a curved shape.

”ham”
image from Wikipedia

Here’s a brief video from Costume Tips on using a ham for pressing darts.

And here’s a video from Threads magazine on pressing curved seams (first 2 minutes).

Hams are heavy and expensive, not an item for starter sewers.

If you haven’t got a pressing ham, improvise by wearing an oven mitt on your non-iron hand and press over that.

The Threads video has a short section on using a pressing mitt (from 3 mins. for a few seconds).
(in this case actually a silicon oven mitt)

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It’s quite easy to make your own.
Here’s a post with links to making your own pressing tools – from fabric

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Pressing makes the difference between professional and homey, so do take the time to do it well 😀

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Links available January 2014

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