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No.6 - SEWING BY HAND Use a good quality cotton thread and a needle you are comfortable with (I like a sharps No. 9). Use a thimble if you can, a lot of sewing does make your finger sore. Use thimble on the middle finger of your sewing hand. The following procedure takes you through the making of a square unit, using four triangles. To start carefully line up, right sides together, 2 pieces of fabric and push pins in directly through the marked sewing line at the beginning and end then put one in the middle as:-
Using a piece of thread no longer than your forearm make a knot in the tail end. Beginning at the right hand pin (for right handed people) push the needle straight in where the pin is (remove the pin and check that the needle has come through on the sewing line of the underneath fabric piece) make a small backstitch to secure and sew together along the drawn sewing line using small running stitches. Usually you can take a needlefull of about 5 or 6 stitches at once, I suggest taking a small backstitch after every needlefull, this secures the sewing line until you reach the last pin. Take another small backstitch and thread the needle through the loop a couple of times to form a knot. Cut the thread leaving a short tail. *Finger press seam to the dark fabric.
SEWING THROUGH A SEAM
*Finger press the seams in opposite directions, butt the seams together and pin down right into the corner of the seam line where it meets the other seam. Turn the work over and check that this pin is in the right position. Pin at the beginning and end of the sewing line. Begin sewing in the usual way until you reach the middle seam. Make a small back stitch to secure the seam at this point and pass the needle through the seam allowance on the top unit only and hold both seam allowances to the right hand side while you make another back stitch in the sewing line – this helps to eliminate a hole in the work where the seams meet. Continue to the end of the sewing line and knot off.
PRESSING *Finger Pressing means just pressing the seams with the fingers. Use a firm surface. Push the seam allowance to one side and press down with your finger and run along the seam. Hand piecing does make it possible to move your seams around as you do not sew into the seam allowance, the picture below illustrates this beautifully.
After seams are pressed little “ears” sometime protrude over the edge of the units or blocks, it is best to cut these off as they may cause a shadow under a light coloured fabric and although no-one else will notice you will!
The seams allowances are pressed in such a way as to distribute the bulk of the fabric and keep them neat. This is important with 8 point star blocks, for success press all your seams to the same side when they meet in the centre. © Templates 2005 …
Note: these instructions are copyrighted. |
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