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| First ever sewing Project |
I have been sewing since October
of 2013. Not a very long time. And I am all self-taught. My very first project
was sewing Bubba's and my fiancé's Halloween costumes. Bubba is obsessed (and I
mean obsessed) with Mario Brothers. I’ve sewn a few skirts, hemmed some pants,
fixed holes in pants, made a seat-belt pillow, and even preformed surgery on a
few well-loved stuffed animals. One of the things I wanted to learn was
quilting. So far I am on my third quilt where a reoccurring problem has
presented itself to me on all accounts. I haven’t seen anything about it on
Pinterest and for some reason that brightened up my day. So with a little
experimentation, I have developed a way that combats this problem quite
effectively and I wanted to share it with my readers and see if you have come
across the same travesty and if this process works for you.
Now, a lot of people tell me how
much they hate quilting and what a long process it is or how boring they find
it. I find it quite relaxing and enjoyable. Yes, it is tedious, but there is
something about it that makes me feel good. It is probably the same reason why
I love sewing. I love the feeling I get after I completed a project. It is as
if I am filled with euphoria. I feel quite under-appreciated most of the time so
when I do finish a project and it is recognized that makes me feel good. And I
get really proud of my completed projects as it should be. We should all be
PROUD of what we have accomplished. |
| Centimeter gap - Eww |
After cutting out all the little
squares and sewing them all together while leaving a 4th of an inch
seam allowance and ironing each strip with the seams going left then the next
strip going right is when we finally get to the step where we sew our strips
together. The problem I have been facing is that while my strips are not yet
sewn together, the squares line up perfectly. However, when I started to sew
the strips together my squares would be off (sometimes by an entire centimeter)
no matter how perfect they were when I pinned them together. I don’t know about
you, but this makes me beyond frustrated where I just want to scream and throw
in the towel.
But there has to be a way to fix
this, right? There are quilters who have been quilting for years and have such
beautifully perfect looking quilts. Is there some kind of secret for this? Are
they robots? Is there some rule in the Quilters Secret Society where they teach
you this secret, but make you swear upon penalty of death not to divulge said
secret? There’s got to be and if so I might be up on the chopping block tomorrow.
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| Wrong! |
My findings are this: Pinning down
your strips is in fact working against
you. I have seen many tutorials online i.e. Pinterest, where they show how they
pin in this manner. And it was the same mistake (yes, mistake) that I was
making. When you pin your strips this way it gives your fabric space to move
away from where you lined up the seams. “But I used a thousand pins!” Doesn’t
matter. The fabric will still move along the pins as the fabric goes through
the sewing machine. The number of pins you use will not stop this from
happening.
However, there is a bright side
to all of this blasphemy. I have noticed that this mistake can be easily
rectified by this So-Easy-I-Cant-Believe-It-Is-Not-Already-On-Pinterest
solution. Whew, that is a long name. I’m going to have to come up with
something simpler.
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| Seams all lined up |
So are you ready to know what the
solution to this huge problem is? It’s really quite easy. Just pin down the seam of each square. “Are you serious? All that build-up for just one easy
little step?” Yep, that one easy little step. But of course, you have to make
sure your seams are lined up properly. And be sure to leave room to sew from
the pin to the edge of the fabric. I get an almost perfect line up each time
from this one little step. This is a far cry from a whole centimeter, don’t you
think? Go ahead try it yourself, see if it works for you or if your secret
method is better. If it is better let me know. I want to try your way out too. I
promise I won’t tell anyone about it. *wink*
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| Right! |
This mommy can come up against
any problem and with a little brain power can do it all!
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| ~See, Perfect~ |
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