all my best tips for piecing curves
Do curves scare you? Then you’re not alone.
Like a lot of other quilters, I had a little bit of an advantage regarding curves when I entered the quilting world — I came from garment sewing, where curves abound. (But at this point, I’d way rather piece a quarter-circle than sew a sleeve into an armscye!)
Here’s how I roll:
I use starch.
Starch can be such a game changer, especially when you’re not working on the straight grain, which, a lot of the time, we aren’t. Everything gets a little bit easier with a little bit of starch. Okay, a lotta bit. I use a lotta bit of starch. I’m a starch-oholic. What’s this piece of cardboard, you say? Oh no, that’s just my quilting cotton. Ha, ha.
Instructions: spray your fabric with starch and iron it before cutting into it.
I thread baste my curves.
I know, I know, glue basting is all the rage these days. I see it all over The Gram. Glue, glue, glue. I’ll glue baste a seam when I want to match a print (sometimes). But when it comes to almost anything else, I just like to thread baste. Why? Well, it’s just less messy. I don’t love glue gunking things up. I also happen to love working with my hands. And thread basting doesn’t actually take THAT long. I also find it pretty easy to do. And this is a biggie: I’ve never had a curve pucker when I’ve thread basted it first.
Instructions: Use any thread you don’t care for. Backstitch at the beginning and end to secure your basting stitch. Sew them curves together with cute, wonky stitches.
I shorten my stitch length.
Like thread basting, this is a carryover from garment sewing for me. I use a shorter stitch length for curves because it makes the curve… curvier.
I start slowly.
No need for speed. Although I start to go pretty quickly once I get into the flow of things, and I often chain piece my curves. It definitely speeds up the actual sewing process if you’ve thread basted the curves first.
I press my seams open.
Okay, okay, I’ve really lost some people now. Some of you just swiped left. Sorry! Bye bye! But really, those of you who remain. I always press my seams open for curves. Why? A couple reasons. One, I’m a garment sewist who just really likes pressing seams open a lot of the time. Two, and this reason holds more water, I’ll admit, you get a cleaner curve that way. Really. Try it for yourself and see. Those seams will have a slightly ruffle-y appearance on the back of your block, but on the front, it’ll look flat and smooth as a pancake. I sometimes even spray the seam with a little starch before pressing to make it even flatter (did I mention my addiction). But my opinion when it comes to pressing seams is, as always, you do you. I’m not bothered. This is just how I do.
I use a piecing foot.
Using a piecing foot (or a patchwork foot) makes curves easy piece-y. Ha, ha.
There you have it. Drop any questions in the comments. I’m out.
