Today's Quilter - UK (2019-07)

61

ESSENTIALGUIDE lsewingcurvedseams

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Marking centreandquarter points

Foldin

half

Foldin

quarter

A

B

A

Pinningcentre

points together

Right

side

Wrong

side B

A

B Pinningtogetherat the

sides and quarter marks

C

Addingmorepins

to align curves

e pins to lig

D E Sewing the seam

Snippingintothe

curved seam

F Pressingthe

seam outwards

G

SEWING A

CURVED SEAM

1

Cutoutthetwoshapesfromfabricusingthe

templates.Markorcreasethecentreandquarter

pointsonthecurvesof bothshapes.Theeasiestway

is to foldeachpieceintoquartersanduseanironto

presslittlecreases,whichcan be seen from the right

and wrong side(Fig4A).

2

Placethepiecesrightsidestogetheraligningcentre

marksandpin(Fig4B). Aligntheouteredges

andthequartermarksandpin(Fig4C). Checkthat

theshortstraightedgeof pieceB is alignedwiththe

straight edge of piece A, pinning at these places too.

3

Noweasetheremainingareasof curvededges

togetherandpin,addingasmanyasneededto

ensurethecurvesmatchwell(Fig4D). Youmayneed

to pullandstretchthefabricedgesintoplace but they

are bias, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

4

Oncethepiecesarewellaligned,sewtheseam

usinga normalstitchlength,butsewinga scant

inseam(Fig4E)seeTroubleshooting,page63.

Yous hou ldb eabletocarefullysewoverthepins,thus

leavingthemin placeuntiltheseamis sewn.Snipinto

theseamallowanceat intervalsusingsharp-pointed

scissors, with cuts about in long(Fig4F).

5

Presstheseamoutwards(orinwardsif youprefer),

usingthenoseof theironto makesureit’spressed

fullyandsmoothly(Fig4G). Takecarenotto distort

the block’s edges. Check the block’s size is correct.

CUTTING SHAPES

Curvedblocksaregenerallymadewithtemplates.Forthis

article,sometemplateswillbesuppliedforyouto usebutnext

monthwewilllookat howto drawyourown.Templatesare

usuallysuppliedwiththeseamallowancealreadyincluded.If

theyarenot,makea mastersetwiththeallowanceadded.The

bestwayto cutthefabricandensuretheheightis constantis to

cuta stripacrossthefabricwidthx theheightof thetemplate,

andthensubcuttheshapesfromthisstrip.Marktheshape

accuratelyusinga pencil.Fig3Ashowstheshapesonthestrip

withthetemplatein thesameorientationeachtime.Fig3B

showsanarrangementwherethetemplateis rotated180-degrees

alternately,formoreeconomicaluseof thefabric.

Whencuttingfabricshapesfromtemplates,youalsoneedto

rememberthatsomeunitswithina blockmightneedto becutas

reflected(reversed)versions.Youcouldmakea secondtemplate

setwiththeshapesfacingtheotherway,orusetheoriginalset

byphysicallyreflecting(flipping)themoverbeforemarkingand

cutting. We will look at this in more detail in the next issue.

Thisbasicmethodcanbe usedforallcurvedseams.

Template1 fromtheTemplatessection has been used here,

but you could easily use another.

Fig 4

B

A

B B B

A A A

A Cutting shapes with templates in same position

Fig 3

Height

of

template

Height

of

template

B

B

B

B

B

A

A

A

A

A

A

B Rotating template for economical fit

Height

of

template

Height

of

template