Foundation Piecing Session 4: Playing with Fabric & Sewing Units

All right. We've got the fabric and the machine ready to go. And my perforated foundations. And I'm gonna start with unit C of this pattern. And I know usually we'd start with A. But I'm starting with C because it's the simplest one and that way I can show you the easiest one first. Okay, the center piece, that one is just... I've just got a great, big, huge piece of fabric there, all right. Because I need to make sure that the fabric goes all the way out across the seam allowances, which this one does. And I'm just gonna put it like that. Okay, you see that. Now, the problem with that is if you can see that, you know you're on the wrong side. I'm gonna flip it over. One of the things about paper piecing is you're always working from the back. When you're positioning fabric, but stitching on the front. Which sounds a little weird, but it gets very comfortable for you. Okay, so, I'm gonna put the tiniest dab of glue stick. You don't even need to see it. You just want a tiny little dab of glue stick there underneath that first patch. And I'm gonna make sure I've got that centered the way I want, like that. And that's all I'm doing. Okay, and I can feel those perforations. Remember I talked about those perforations and I can feel the seam. Okay, so, this is number one. Number two is here. I'm gonna be sewing that seam. So what I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna fold back on that line between one and two. I'm gonna fold back on that perforated line. Yay, perforations. Okay, I'm taking my Add-A-Quarter Ruler. The Add-A-Quarter Ruler has this lip. It's kinda hard to see, but it's a little lip here. I don't know how to show you exactly. But it's gonna just snuck up against that edge where I've got it folded. And I'm gonna take a Rotary Cutter and just trim that off. And when I turn it over, I have a perfect seam allowance. Yay, okay. So, I'm gonna sew patch number two. Patch number one like this. Now this is a batik. I know batiks don't really have a right side and a wrong side, but I think they kind of do have a difference. This seems paler to me. So, now because there are batiks that can be kind of hard to see but you're gonna be wanting to do right sides together. Okay, now this you could see was lighter side down. And here we go, right sides together. And what I'm doing is I'm aligning these edges. Now this is a triangle because it was one of these squares that I cut in half to get triangles. But what if it was wiggly and wobbly? What if that wasn't a nice clean cut. Okay, so I'm just gonna say it was just kind of a weird... Trying to make it look strange. Okay, cut like that, maybe a little wiggly there. Okay, this is kind of fun. The getting wild with the edges part. Okay, you wouldn't normally do this. I'm just showing you that you don't have to be precise in the cutting. 'Cause one of the best things about paper piecing is you don't have to be precise in your cutting unless you want to. Okay, so back here's my half that had that seam allowance. See, you can feel that perforation right there. And I know it's light colored, so it's easier to see but even if it weren't, you can feel it, it's great. Okay, so I want to make sure that I have enough of seam allowance of this fabric to completely cut, fill in the seam allowance. If I had a straight edge, like I do with this guy. I could line them up perfectly like that. And stitch and flip. But I'm not worrying about that, I don't have to have straight edges. I can grab anything I want. And I'm gonna make sure that the patch I'm putting on top goes past that seam allowance, goes beyond there. That way I know I have enough. Okay. For the seam allowance. Again, I'm looking for which is the right side. Okay. I think it's that way. And when I'm positioning this... Now this wouldn't be right because the seam allowance is gonna be too small here. Remember, that one's gonna have to go beyond the one that I know is just right, like that. And then I'm also thinking about the positioning of this. When I flip it, I want to make sure that it's going to go not just here on the finish line, it needs to go way out here into the seam allowance. So I'm probably just going to move it a little bit to make sure it's more even. Okay. And now I've got it. Now, if you wanted to put a pin in there you could but you really don't have to. I'm just gonna hold it with one hand. For some reason, when I use two hands it always gets misaligned. I don't know why. It doesn't really matter. As long as you have enough of the seam allowance, you can always trim it back the other way. Okay. So here I go. I'm just gonna turn it over. Now, you see what I've got? Here's my foundation, right side up. The fabrics are underneath right sides together. And I'm using a bright pink thread, not because I think it's the best one for this fabric, but because I want you to be able to see it. I have a good needle in here, although it will get dull 'cause it's going through a paper. I have obviously threaded it. I'm gonna make a smaller stitch length. So on my machine, it's usually 2.5. I'm gonna go down to 1.5. If I hadn't perforated this first, I'd probably go down to a one. Okay. And I'm gonna start stitching. Remember beyond that seam allowance. Okay. Because if you don't stitch into the seam allowance, you stop and your pieces aren't joined, what happens to the seam allowance? So you have to start beyond the seam allowance. And just with a smaller stitch... And you can see why it's easy to take the paper off because between the perforation and now a smaller stitch. There we go. Okay, and I went all the way through seam allowances. Whoops. And I'm just gonna snip off my threads when they're over here. Just makes life easy. By the way, if you don't a pair of these scissors that are angled. They're incredibly handy for this kind of a thing. I love these. Oh, and also I've had questions before. "My machine has the integrated Dual Feed. So it doesn't need a Walking Foot." You don't have to have that. You can do this with a regular machine. And actually without the walk, the Dual Feed. It's actually a wonderful technique for a machine that doesn't have Dual Feed or Walking Foot. Because the paper can keep the fabrics together and keep them from sliding. So, keep them in position. So it's actually doesn't need to have the Walking Foot. Okay. So here's my seam. And what I'm gonna do because they were so wonky. Normally if I had a nice straight line and I aligned them I wouldn't have to do this. But I've got that really wonky piece. So I'm gonna fold back on that line again. And I'm going to trim again. The yellow one won't get trimmed again. But that peachy one will. Okay. So again, I'm butting up right against that paper fold. There we go. And look at that. Nice, pretty little seam allowance. Okay, and all I'm gonna do is fold it over open like that. And you can take anything... Wooden iron or this thing, or even the Add-A-Quarter Ruler. She's got Add-A-Quarter plus now and it's got this fine little edge. While you're doing is you're trying to press it just like this. Okay, I'm just gonna press that in. I happen to use this more comfortably but to each his own there. So I've just pressed that without having to go to an iron. Okay, I have a friend who will only use this. Everyone has their own favorites. All right, so now I'm gonna go on to the next seam. The next seam is going to be for number three. 'Cause we've done number two, same thing. I am folding back on my perforated line like that. Just like that. Get the Add-A-Quarter Ruler. Snug. Oops. My thread tails wanna play. Okay. Did you see that? I just littered. I just threw thread tails on the floor. Oh well, there's a lot of thread going every which way in this technique. You can clean the room later but don't vacuum all those thread tails. Actually I have a little plastic rake that I use on the carpet works brilliantly. Okay. So same thing. I've got my Add-A-Quarter Ruler snugged up against that fold. And I'm just gonna snip that off. See that. So now I've got my little seam allowance in place. This time I'll use one that has a nice edge. This guy, okay. Right side down. And I'm just gonna align it with my trimmed edge like that. There we go. And I'm gonna hold it and turn it over. Again, you can pin there if you want. I suggest if you're going to do that use something like a silk pin. A pin with a very small head. So you don't have a lump. Okay. Otherwise I won't sew in line. Starting beyond that seam allowance. All the way across, beyond the next seam allowance. Okay, well I'm just gonna snip my threads. This is a really simple unit that I'm showing you now. But when you get units that have lots of pieces if you're not snipping threads as you go along, it becomes a nightmare. So snip your threads. Okay, here we go. Oh, cat fur. I have three cats. There's cat fur, just shows up. Okay. So those are done. Now the next one I've done two and three, next ones four. So same thing. I really need to get something like bifocals. Now this is going to be something new. You can see how the stitching goes out into the paper like that, beyond this line. So you're gonna have to pull back. And what you wanna do. You're not trying to break the thread. You wanna have the thread breakthrough that paper. So I'm just gonna hold that really tightly and just kind of work that paper back to the fold. And I'm gonna do the same thing over here like that. So my paper... Do you see how paper tore there? That's what you want. And then you just gonna keep working at it until it's nice and flat, there. Okay. Same thing. I'm going to trim to that next seam allowance right across like that, all that. And look, isn't that a pretty little seam allowance? Same thing, right Side down. Again, I'm thinking about how I'm orienting this piece versus the corner. If I did that, if I sewed it like that and then flipped it, that's what would happen. It's not good. So I'm gonna make sure I have it all the way across. And when I'm thinking about where it has to flip to same thing. Okay, like I said, I think I need bifocals. Okay. There we go. And if I want to, I can trim this because I kind of put that piece a little further than it needed to be. It's up to you. You can have big seam allowances, who's gonna know. Nobody and they don't have to be perfect 'cause they're gonna come off anyway. The edges will, where I was. Okay, and then I'll just press this little guy open. Okay. Like that. Come on, guy. Okay. And last one for this piece. So same thing. I'm holding onto the fabric and tearing the paper. Hold the fabric, tear the paper. Okay, this guy didn't wanna come back on that side. I'm just gonna make it, there we go. Okay, do you talk to your fabric like I do? I talk to fabric. I pet fabric. I love fabric. It's a sickness, but it's a really fun one. Okay, I know. Again, oops. I don't know what that was. Okay, right side down. Positioning, so I know it's gonna flip open where I want it to. And I'm just gonna sew. Wanna make sure my thread is not sticking up over the foot. And there we go. Okay, and now I've got 'em all sown on. And I'm not gonna bother with pressing this one open with a wooden iron. I'm just gonna take it over to the real iron. So I'm gonna grab the iron. I'll be right back. Okay. Here I am. I've got my little piece already to go. And again, I didn't bother with the wooden iron 'cause I knew I was taking it to the real iron. My really really hot little iron. And all I'm doing is I'm just gonna give this a press. When it gets all wonky down here, it doesn't matter. That's beyond the seam, the stitching line. Okay, and I'm just gonna flip this little gizmo over and I'm gonna flip that over. And you can see where I need to trim it. And I'm gonna trim right along that marked seam allowance. Okay, and making sure my ruler is squared up, all right. And I'm just gonna cut everything, right through everything at once. There's two corners. I'm gonna turn it around, do the same thing over here. Okay, it's also a good time to check. See, I've got that four and 1/2 inch mark of the ruler on that corner. I know that this is a four and 1/2 inch unit unfinished. So it's just a good time to check your sizing. Okay. Oops. I missed. You ever done that? Have you ever rotary cut something and somehow you get this weird angle? Okay. There we go. And there we have... Isn't that cute? Okay. But there's one more little step. In many paper piecing units. You're gonna have bias on the outer edge. And they can sit around for a while before they sew into someone else... So what I do is I take Fray Check. And you might wanna put a piece of paper here just to protect your surface. And I'm just going to take a dab of Fray Check all along the raw edges of the fabric. Most important part is the corners but you want to get all of it. And it looks like... Uh-oh, look at all that. Oh wow. Is that gonna show? Because it is darker. No, it's not gonna show. You've got that 1/4 inch seam allowance. So unless you come all the way inside that 1/4 inch seam allowance it's not gonna show at all. Okay. I do this on all of them and right here. And you just let it dry for 10 or 15 minutes before if you were gonna pick this up and sew to another unit, you'd let it dry. But it's gonna be longer than, anyway. So that's it. I'm just gonna kind of make sure nothing's... Don't pull on these guys 'cause they have bias. But I just wanna make sure that no one's really attached to the paper. Yeah. They're not. They never have been. And that's it. I'm just gonna put this to one side. And I know that unit's done. Okay. I'm gonna go grab the machine and show you the next part. Okay. Now I'm gonna show you a more complicated unit. This is the first unit, unit A. It has 10 pieces and things are coming into one another. It's a more complicated one than that first one I showed you. So again, I'm looking at number one to start and I'm turning that over. There's my little number one section. I looked here and to see that number one of unit A is the main petal fabric. All right, and this is the main petal fabric right here. So again, I'm gonna be working on this first one is right side up. A tiny dab of glue. Just that much. And I'm gonna put this right side up. So it covers that up. And again, the perforation I can feel that I'm not too close that I have a full 1/4 inch all the way round. Okay. I'm gonna turn it now right side up. And I'm gonna fold back between one and two. I'm gonna go faster on this block because I've already sort of walked you through it. And I'm gonna let you watch what I'm doing more. No, I'm not gonna talk as much. Well, that's easy for me to say not so easy for me to do. Okay. So I have trimmed between one and two. I'm gonna look at my chart. Two is a two and inch 1/2 brown square. And before I got started I made sure I had all of my patches here. Okay. So I'm gonna put it along that edge that I trimmed. I'm just thinking, I know it has to go over there. Okay, so as long as it's on the right edge and I turn that over. Bring it over to the machine. And this time I'm gonna start back. You'll see. You wanna start back 1/4 of an inch, even though it's not into a seam allowance, it's into another piece. You still need to have that sewn. If you stop stitching right there at the point when you take all the paper off, it's not gonna hold together. All right, so I'm starting 1/4 of an inch beyond that line. I'm just gonna sew right on through 1/4 of inch beyond. Close enough for jazz. There you go. See what that looks like. Okay, and I'm just gonna press this open. You could have an iron right here, but if you did you'd be pressing this a lot. You'd be pressing that paper a lot. And oh really important thing, you don't press any of this paper with a steam iron. Your iron has to be dry, dry, dry, because the ink here can transfer. If you have a steam iron. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Plus it makes the paper less strong. It makes it weaker. Dry irons only. Okay, so that one's pressed ready to go. The next one's number three. I'm just gonna do exactly what I've been doing. Okay. Fold that back. I'm holding the fabric and just letting that... If it looks good to let the fabric, excuse me the paper turn. Okay, trim. The next patch, looking at my chart. All right, put that right there. Right sides together. Okay, starting 1/4 of an inch back from the line. I'm gonna stitch all the way through 1/4 of an inch beyond it. Okay. If you want to, you can assembly line, these guys. And I'll show you how to do that a little bit later. Okay, so that one's open and press, whoops. I'm throwing my iron around. Okay. So I've just done three. The next one is gonna be four. Okay. So here's the seam allowance. If you need that, the seam line. I'm gonna hold that down just like I did before and come right back along that perforation. If you didn't have the perforation you'd be trying to fold back on a line. Which is why with the other papers I'll fold them a couple of times first to make it easier to fold them when I really need them to fold. Okay, and that's ready to go. The next one is gonna be number four. I look at my chart, it's that big triangle. Same thing as last time making sure I've got that pretty much centered. So it'll go out where I want it to. That point. And you can see this gets a lot faster when you're just doing it. Same thing all the way past that seam allowance. Okay, and I'm just gonna press this guy open. Doesn't have to be perfect pressing here because this is an outer piece and it's gonna get pressed with the iron before anybody else attaches to it. Okay. So I've done four so the next one's five. All right, there's that line for five. Hold the fabric. Just let the paper tear. Okay, there we go. My little ruler on there. And look. And now I'm ready to go. Number five. I'm gonna look at my chart. Number five is another piece of the petal fabric. All right, right side down. Now I'm keeping in mind. This is the piece I wanna cover. So I wanna make sure I've got all the way up into this 1/4 inch seam allowance. Which I do a nice big piece here. It doesn't matter if your pieces are too big you just don't want them too small, too small is bad. It's awful when you flip it and it doesn't completely cover something and you have to take it apart. Okay, 1/4 inch past. Oops. Okay. Now I gotta press this open, like that. And the next one is six. Just doing the same things over and over again. Now what's really cool about this. You'll see here we have one, two, three, four five pieces coming together at the same point. If I weren't doing this paper piecing, I wouldn't even try. I'd have no hope. Oh wait you see how pretty this is when I get them all together. Okay, and this is kind of getting wonky here. That doesn't matter. I know where I'm cutting because I have that folded all the way down and it's a straight line. With my 1/4 inch seam allowance and the next one is number six. Number six is green. Here's my little green guy, right side down. 'Cause the right sides together. It's like everything else you sew, if you're a quilter. Something interesting to think about is that when your paper piecing like this, you're working on the back side of the image that you see here. So what that means is that if you have an asymmetrical design. You're always going to wanna make sure foundation that you're looking at is the mirror image of what your finished piece should look like. So when you go to a magazine and I'll show you this later. When you go to a magazine and you see that the Starfish's looking that way, when it's finished, on your foundation it's gonna look like that. That's how it's supposed to look. Because you're working on the underside and when it flips over the starfish we'll be looking that way. Okay, I know I'm a little weird that's okay. All right, and I'm just gonna keep going like this same thing same thing. All right, remember, we've got all those pieces coming together at one point. So you're going to have a little knot a fabric there, which is how it should be. That's how it should be. Okay, and we are already up to number seven. Number seven is brown. Okay, and these are going to be cut the-- Some of these would be cut diagonally, right? To make a triangle. But what if I don't have that right now? All I have to do, I can do it this way. It doesn't matter. I'm gonna have bias on the outer edge but I really don't mind. Because it's attached to the paper and I'll Fray Check it. So I'm just gonna go ahead. Starting 1/4 inch out. Across like that. Okay. Yup, this guy's a little bigger than I want. So I'm just gonna bend that back again and I'm going to trim that seam allowance. Okay, 'cause sometimes they shift when you're turning them upside down onto the machine. It's really no biggie. As long as you trim later and don't cut your finger. Okay, well that's all set and ready to go out to that corner and I'm just gonna press it. Okay, I'm looking at that going, "Did I get all the way out to the seam allowance?" Well it's pretty darn close. I'll find out, won't I? Okay, if I didn't get out to seam allowance and I had to take the stitching out and move back over there. There's a way to do that. When you look at these tiny little stitches and you're thinking, "I can't use a seam ripper." You're right you can't. Not the way you usually do. Okay, so I've done seven. The next one is eight. Here's eight. I'm gonna just hold that, peel it back. There. There we go. Okay. Almost. There we go. Did you cooperate? Yes, you did. Oh, thank you. Okay. As I said before when you have this many things going on, it's okay if your paper tears a little bit as long as you have that fold you're fine. Okay, I'm just gonna trim across there. All right, the next one is eight. Eight is another one of the petal fabric. So I'm gonna put this on wrong side down. Excuse me, right side down. But here's something you need to look at. See, I've got 1/4 inch seam allowance out here. I need to make sure that this is gonna be far enough that way and the same here. I want to center it. So I've got 1/4 inch, 1/4 inch going that way. Now you're gonna be thinking a little bit about your seam allowances on the edges of your unit. Okay, Starting back there. Okay. So I'm just gonna keep doing the same thing I've been doing until I get this done. And I'll show you that complete one in just a second. All right. I've got all the pieces sewn on. Doesn't that look strange? I know it doesn't look like much of anything right now, does it? So I'm just gonna go ahead and press that with the iron. All right, and flip it over. And then I'm gonna trim on the back. Just like I did last time. I'm going to go ahead and trim this right on that seam allowance line. Okay. Like this. And I'll do the same thing again. Okay, making sure I'm right on the marks. I'm breaking my own rule. Look at that. I've got that open. My Rotary Cutter open. Okay. I never do that. I'm always closing it. Okay. And here we go. Ta-da look at that. It's now pretty. That's a little flower, ooh. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and Fray Check this edge like I did with the other ones. And then when I come back, I'm gonna show you the rest of the block and how it all goes together.