Today's Quilter - UK (2019-07)

63

ESSENTIALGUIDE lsewingcurvedseams

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Pleatformed

andinthepath

oftheneedle

Fig 9 Watching out for pleats

Tr ythis...Therearevariousreasonswhy

pleatsformedin yourwork,soI’llgothrough

these and suggest solutions for each one.

1

Sewingcurvedseamsforsmallunitsis

moredicultthansewinglargeunitsso,

whenlearningthetechnique,I suggestusing

thelargertemplatesI’vesuppliedforpractise.

Thelargerones will be less fiddly than

Te m p l a t e 4.

2

Checktheprintedtemplatesarethe

correctsizes and that the seam allowances

are in.

3

Oncethefabricpiecesarecut,placethe

templatesbackontopto checktheshapes

are accurate, checking especially along the

curve.Youmightneed to nibble away a bit

more of the fabric.

4

Pinwiththeconcavepartontop(the

curvedL shape),asthat’sthepiece

thatseemsto formthemostpleats.Useas

manypinsasyouneedto keepbothcurves

aligned.Afterpinningthepiecestogether,

checkthebacktoo,to make sure no pleats

have been formed.

5

Whensewingcurvesit is importantto

stitchslowly,checkingconstantlyahead

to wheretheneedlewillbegoing.If the

pathin frontof theneedleis flat,therewill

benopleats.Fig 9 showsa pleatwaitingto

happen,sotakeactionbyeasingthefabric

out of the way or adding more pins.

I’vetriedcurved seams before but ended up with little pleats. Why did

this happen?

SEWING CURVED SEAMS –

TROUBLESHOOTING

Strayingothestraightandnarrowcanbe exciting.Here

are answers to some common questions about sewing curves.

Aboutthedesigner

LindaClementsis a leadingtechnicalquiltingexpert,

editorandwriterwho,for 25 years,hasworkedon

manyfabricandcrafttitlesfor F&W Media and other

leadingcraftpublishers.

AmongthemanyquilterswhohavetrustedLindato

ensuretheirbooksarebothaccurateandreaderfriendly

areLynneEdwardsMBE,SusanBriscoe,Pam& Nicky

Lintott,PaulineIneson,MandyShawandLynette

Anderson.Linda’sownbook,TheQuilter’sBible, is the

must-haveguidetopatchwork,quiltingandappliqué,and

includes everything she has learnt working with the

industry’sbestdesigners.ForTo d ay’sQ u i l t e r, Lindais

workingwiththeteamtoselectpracticalandcreative

techniques.Shewillthengoindepth,exploringthe

methods,takingthemfromthebasicpremisetotheirfull

technicalandcreativepotential.Youcancutoutandkeep

this section to build your own bespoke technical handbook.

ESSENTIALGUIDENEXTISSUE:

CREATIVECURVES

Drawingtemplatesforcurvedpiecing.

WhenI’veused

templatesinthepast,

I oftenfindthatthe

sewingendsupa bit

smallerthanit’smeant

tobe.Whyisthis?

Tr ythis... Mostmachine

piecingis donewithin

seams,butstrictlyspeaking

theseamallowanceshould

beascantin,asthis

takesaccountof thetiny

amountof fabricthatis

lostin theseamwhenit is

pressedover.Whenunits

areslightlysmallerthan

theyshouldbe,thereis a

greattemptationto keep

pressingandstretchingthe

fabricto bringit upto size,

whichleadsto distortion.

Withcurvedseams,or

whensewinganytemplate

shapestogether,I always

usea scantin seam.By

“scant”I meanhavinga

seamthatis oneortwo

needlewidthssmallerthan

a fullin seam.I achieve

thisbyusingain foot

andmovingtheneedle

positiona littlefurtherto

theright.Theresultis that

thesewnunitis a more

accurate size.