Piecing Tips

Let's get down to basics -  putting two piece of fabric together.  Easy, right?   Have you heard of the Warp and Weft of fabric?  

The Warp are the threads of the fabric that are attached to the loom when making fabric.  For us laymen it's the selvage edges.

The Weft are the threads that are woven under and over the Warp threads.

Most of us cut off the selvages when we begin cutting up our fabric into pieces for quilting.  There's no give in the selvage and can cause problems down the road.  If you're sewing clothes, the patterns give you indications as to where to layout your pattern on your fabric.  The Big Black Arrows that say "put me along the selvage edge" please.  

But once you remove those selvages, how do you know?  Simple, give your fabric a little tug between your fingers.   The Warp or selvage edge won't "give" very much when pulled, if at all.  However, the Warp edge will pull easily the same way you'd expect a bias edge to "give" when pulled.

What does this mean for us quilters?  How many times have you tried sewing a row of blocks or even pieces of blocks together and they just don't quite match up?  

Let's say we're making a simple 4 patch block.  Here's an easy step to take to help with that.  Figure out which is the Warp and which is the Weft by pulling each edge of the square of fabric you've cut.  Which ever "gives" the most is the Weft.  Sorry I can't show you both my hands pulling on the fabric - needed one hand to snap the photo! 

Now when you sew two pieces together, place the Weft sides at the top/bottom and sew along the Warp edges.  What has this done for you?  Sew your two sets of 2 patches using this method.  Now that you have 2 sets of 2 patches ready to sew together into a 4 patch,  you'll be sewing along the Weft edges.  These are the edges that "give" when stretched.  So if your cutting or sewing hasn't been exactly accurate, this little "give" will allow you to stretch the fabric a little bit to make the edges and/or seams of your pieces match up perfectly!

This technique is especially helpful when you're sewing plain squares in a row of pieced blocks.  Gives you that extra little bit to get things to match up just right.

Another Tip along those same "matching up" issues:  If you're sewing along and your noticing that the next seam, or end of the blocks you're sewing together aren't going to match up, what do you do?   Well, which ever is shorter, whether it's the top piece of the bottom, hold it a bit tighter while your machine feels the fabric under the foot.  Just a bit tighter.  The feed dogs and/or walking foot will pull along which ever you're not holding onto  tightly and will help "ease" it into the short piece.  And Wala!  the seams and/or end of the fabric match up!!

I can't stress enough that I HATE to pin ... anything.  But I've learned there is one except and that's when I add borders.  I'll go into the correct way of "adding borders" at another time.  For now just remember it's better to pin borders than not to pin.  Why?  As mentioned above, fabric "gives".  When sewing on borders without pinning them you will enviably stretch the border and this will cause wavy borders that will never lay flat.