Why not use 1/2" seam?
07-01-2015, 01:39 PM
#24
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Northern California
Posts: 267
To echo what everyone on this thread has said, accuracy in cutting and seaming is absolutely essential to a good-looking, long-lasting quilt. That said, I believe we can cut ourselves some slack, so to speak, because it doesn't really matter how we achieve accuracy as long as we make the effort to pursue it.
If you use your 1/2-inch seams as a learning exercise and practice opportunity to increase your accuracy and precision, go for it. In addition, consider cutting your blocks a little larger to begin with, regardless of seam size, and square and trim each block by cutting it down to prescribed size as you go. You will be able to track your progress toward accurate cutting and piecing by how and how much you have to trim to achieve a square block. If you haven't yet mastered cutting on the straight of grain, read, read, and reread the master quilters (the Hargraves' Quilter's Academy, Vol 1, Sally Collins's Mastering Precision Piecing, to mention only two of thousands of authorities available to you) until you internalize their guidelines and best practices; meanwhile, use lots of spray starch/Best Press when prepping your fabric for cutting and piecing.
If you find that the bulk of 1/2-inch seams are tripping you up in certain patterns, as others have cautioned, you can always eliminate bulk in your seams after you sew them. The Add-A-Quarter/Add-An-Eighth rulers make easy work of trimming down your 1/2-inch seam allowances to 3/8 or 1/4-inch, but a specialty ruler isn't really necessary.
Oversizing, squaring and trimming your blocks do entail more thought, effort, and fabric, but these practices will help you develop your quilting skills. You'll find your quilts look better, even with the simplest of patterns. it's time well spent, and the extra effort and fabric required will motivate and speed you along to greater accuracy so you can ultimately avoid the extra steps (except for the starching; starching is always the precision quilter's friend ;->).
As QuiltnLady1 says, if you tie off your quilt, all bets are off and you definitely need 1/2-inch seams. But assuming you do quilt your quilts after construction, then unraveling seams during construction are often a function of less-than-optimal thread tension and stitch length. I have issues with unsecured seams unraveling, especially when chain piecing and/or after trimming blocks down to size. Take into consideration the kind of fabric and thread you are working with (tightness of weave, finish, heft, bias cut/cut on straight of grain, thread quality/ weight/# of plies, etc.) and adjust your needle, thread, and machine settings accordingly.
If you can shorten your stitch length without driving yourself crazy when you have to rip a seam, and you are certain you can't improve on your thread tension, you can minimize/eliminate unraveling seams during construction. Whenever I piece fabric cut on the bias (e.g., triangles, curves, borders and bindings) and often when chain piecing, I lower my stitch length to a 1.0 - 1.5 setting (~ 13-20 stitches per inch). I find that even small machine adjustments are a big help in keeping stitches secure.
Finally, as for the quilt that fell apart in the wash, even if your piecing was sound and your stitches held up during construction, if you skimped on the quilting and didn't follow the guidelines for the batt you were using (every 2/3/4 inches or whatever), you may have placed undue stress on the seams they couldn't withstand. You really do have to plan a quilting design that complies with the batting guidelines. Stitch-in-the-ditch quilting is always a great option for added protection and reinforcement of your seams but if your blocks and pieces are large without a lot of seams, it may not be enough. Assuming your quilting design plan meets the requirements of your batting, if you SID the construction seams in your quilt with good quality thread, your fabric may eventually wear out, but your seams won't. SIDing your seams doesn't prevent you from pursuing additional quilting design options but complements additional quilting and showcases your precision piecing!
Good luck on your new project (it looks great!) and have fun.
PS--don't skip the starch and, FWIW, the quilt police will not hold you to matching the stripes in a funky 70s quilt. Lucky daughter.
If you use your 1/2-inch seams as a learning exercise and practice opportunity to increase your accuracy and precision, go for it. In addition, consider cutting your blocks a little larger to begin with, regardless of seam size, and square and trim each block by cutting it down to prescribed size as you go. You will be able to track your progress toward accurate cutting and piecing by how and how much you have to trim to achieve a square block. If you haven't yet mastered cutting on the straight of grain, read, read, and reread the master quilters (the Hargraves' Quilter's Academy, Vol 1, Sally Collins's Mastering Precision Piecing, to mention only two of thousands of authorities available to you) until you internalize their guidelines and best practices; meanwhile, use lots of spray starch/Best Press when prepping your fabric for cutting and piecing.
If you find that the bulk of 1/2-inch seams are tripping you up in certain patterns, as others have cautioned, you can always eliminate bulk in your seams after you sew them. The Add-A-Quarter/Add-An-Eighth rulers make easy work of trimming down your 1/2-inch seam allowances to 3/8 or 1/4-inch, but a specialty ruler isn't really necessary.
Oversizing, squaring and trimming your blocks do entail more thought, effort, and fabric, but these practices will help you develop your quilting skills. You'll find your quilts look better, even with the simplest of patterns. it's time well spent, and the extra effort and fabric required will motivate and speed you along to greater accuracy so you can ultimately avoid the extra steps (except for the starching; starching is always the precision quilter's friend ;->).
As QuiltnLady1 says, if you tie off your quilt, all bets are off and you definitely need 1/2-inch seams. But assuming you do quilt your quilts after construction, then unraveling seams during construction are often a function of less-than-optimal thread tension and stitch length. I have issues with unsecured seams unraveling, especially when chain piecing and/or after trimming blocks down to size. Take into consideration the kind of fabric and thread you are working with (tightness of weave, finish, heft, bias cut/cut on straight of grain, thread quality/ weight/# of plies, etc.) and adjust your needle, thread, and machine settings accordingly.
If you can shorten your stitch length without driving yourself crazy when you have to rip a seam, and you are certain you can't improve on your thread tension, you can minimize/eliminate unraveling seams during construction. Whenever I piece fabric cut on the bias (e.g., triangles, curves, borders and bindings) and often when chain piecing, I lower my stitch length to a 1.0 - 1.5 setting (~ 13-20 stitches per inch). I find that even small machine adjustments are a big help in keeping stitches secure.
Finally, as for the quilt that fell apart in the wash, even if your piecing was sound and your stitches held up during construction, if you skimped on the quilting and didn't follow the guidelines for the batt you were using (every 2/3/4 inches or whatever), you may have placed undue stress on the seams they couldn't withstand. You really do have to plan a quilting design that complies with the batting guidelines. Stitch-in-the-ditch quilting is always a great option for added protection and reinforcement of your seams but if your blocks and pieces are large without a lot of seams, it may not be enough. Assuming your quilting design plan meets the requirements of your batting, if you SID the construction seams in your quilt with good quality thread, your fabric may eventually wear out, but your seams won't. SIDing your seams doesn't prevent you from pursuing additional quilting design options but complements additional quilting and showcases your precision piecing!
Good luck on your new project (it looks great!) and have fun.
PS--don't skip the starch and, FWIW, the quilt police will not hold you to matching the stripes in a funky 70s quilt. Lucky daughter.
Last edited by frannella; 07-01-2015 at 01:53 PM.
07-02-2015, 04:32 AM
#26
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Montana
Posts: 565
One of the first thing I do is make 1/2 inch seams on my quilts. Especially the ones that are going to be used and washed a lot. It takes some doing but It has worked for me. I really don't see what difference the seam size makes. If you are making something with lots of y or cross seams there may be more bulk but it can be dealt with especially since your machine can handle it.
Lynda
Lynda
07-02-2015, 04:37 AM
#27
Power Poster
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 26,018
You have got lots of good answers here. Nothing much I could add except to say to make sure your stitch length isn't too long if your seams are coming apart. Use small, close stitches to make strong seams. Quilts get a lot of "pull" on them, and feet pushing against them when used. Small stitches won't break as easily as longer ones.
07-02-2015, 05:10 AM
#28
Power Poster
Join Date: May 2009
Location: NY
Posts: 10,590
Patchwork quilting's history is steeped in frugality. To make something useful out of scraps of fabric left over from clothing. I suspect that may be how the 1/4 inch seam allowance came to be, as well as reducing bulk for hand quilting. Those of us who hand quilt know all to well how difficult it is to keep small even stitches while attempting to go through so many layers. So almost all patchwork patterns are written for 1/4" seam allowance.
As another poster mentioned, using a 1/2" seam allowance is a huge waste of fabric in my mind, especially given today's fabric prices. Also it will make for a very heavy quilt, especially if it is a lot of pieces. My recently completed clamshell LC ( http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...l-t265848.html ) top is very heavy and I can't imagine how much heavier it would be with a larger s/a. Additionally some of my strips finish at 1/2" wide so if I used a 1/2 s/a you are talking bulk of 5 layers of fabric plus batting and backing! Not only that but a full half of the fabric would have been wasted in the s/a. No thanks.
I suspect there are multiple reasons your one quilt fell apart in the wash. These would include: Both units of patchwork did not have 1/4" (one side of your seam had less s/a than the other), loosely woven fabric, too large a stitch length (a VERY common newbie problem) bad tension on your sewing stitch (another common newb problem) and last but certainly not least, not enough quilting. So don't put all the blame on your seam allowance. I would be more inclined to think the reason it fell apart was one or a combination of the other culprits I outlined above.
Quilts have been made for centuries with 1/4" seam allowance and many are still around today. Your plus sign quilt is coming along nicely so don't skimp on it when it comes to the quilting. Follow the batting recommendations and then some. The next quilt, try going back to your 1/4" but pay attention to the quality of your seams and sewing stitches. Inspect both sides of your patchwork to ensure you didn't give one side much less s/a than the other, make sure you tension looks good, reduce your stitch length, use quality materials and finally make sure you do enough quilting to help hold the whole thing together and I think you will find yourself enjoying your end product and your quilting journey much more.
As another poster mentioned, using a 1/2" seam allowance is a huge waste of fabric in my mind, especially given today's fabric prices. Also it will make for a very heavy quilt, especially if it is a lot of pieces. My recently completed clamshell LC ( http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...l-t265848.html ) top is very heavy and I can't imagine how much heavier it would be with a larger s/a. Additionally some of my strips finish at 1/2" wide so if I used a 1/2 s/a you are talking bulk of 5 layers of fabric plus batting and backing! Not only that but a full half of the fabric would have been wasted in the s/a. No thanks.
I suspect there are multiple reasons your one quilt fell apart in the wash. These would include: Both units of patchwork did not have 1/4" (one side of your seam had less s/a than the other), loosely woven fabric, too large a stitch length (a VERY common newbie problem) bad tension on your sewing stitch (another common newb problem) and last but certainly not least, not enough quilting. So don't put all the blame on your seam allowance. I would be more inclined to think the reason it fell apart was one or a combination of the other culprits I outlined above.
Quilts have been made for centuries with 1/4" seam allowance and many are still around today. Your plus sign quilt is coming along nicely so don't skimp on it when it comes to the quilting. Follow the batting recommendations and then some. The next quilt, try going back to your 1/4" but pay attention to the quality of your seams and sewing stitches. Inspect both sides of your patchwork to ensure you didn't give one side much less s/a than the other, make sure you tension looks good, reduce your stitch length, use quality materials and finally make sure you do enough quilting to help hold the whole thing together and I think you will find yourself enjoying your end product and your quilting journey much more.
07-02-2015, 06:41 AM
#30
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 2,877
Try to remember, there are many "rules" in quilting but when it comes down to it - Your quilt, your rules. Do what works for you. Now if it didn't work so well, go back and look at those rules. If it works for you, great!! Trust me, no one is going to look at the seams of a gorgeous quilt!!
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