Wool crepe

Today I cut Butterick 3421 from some stashed black wool crepe. (I've recently been trying to avoid buying more black because I don't think it's my best color — dark brown, gray, and almost any other dark color would be better —but this was a sunk cost, and I may have a use for it in any case.)

Before I cut, I looked in some of my books to make sure it really could be cut two-way ("without nap" and so forth). I was surprised to see all the contradictory information: Shaeffer says not to have wool crepe preshrunk at all (at least in my old edition of the book), Parker says to have the drycleaner do it with little or no steam, Betzina says to have it preshrunk (by the drycleaner or in the washing machine) or it will shrink a whole size; the first two say to use as little steam as possible while pressing, while Betzina says to "steam iron".

Be that as it may, I'd previously ironed the whole piece with as much steam as my iron would produce (admittedly not much) and observed no ill effects. Maybe it's because it's so dark; it's also probably a pretty coarse weave, as far as crepe goes. I could see seam imprints as being something that could happen with this fabric, so I will be careful in that regard.