A pieced pattern can often be changed to a paper pieced pattern, if you prefer to work with that method.

Materials needed for the process include:

paper - either blank or square ruled
pencil
ruler/square (I use a 6 1/2" squaring ruler)
pattern

I have chosen two patterns as examples. The first is Job's tears.

As you look at the block, there are 4 squares in the finished block that are identical. Those areas would be good candidates for paper piecing.

Once you determine the portion readily adaptable to paper piecing, determine the size. You can measure the pattern, if you have a full size pattern, or you can draw your own pattern for this. In this case, I needed a 12" finished square, and set the measurement of the center as 2". That left me 5" for each block. I drew a 5" square, added seam allowances, and proceeded to add the lines of the fabric pieces needed.

Numbering of the parts for piecing needs to be in an order that makes sense to you. For me, the center piece was largest, and allowed seams to be pressed away from the center. So it became 1. 2 and 3 were arbitrary.

Another block I have done this way is crown of thorns.

As you look at the pattern, there is an area to the side that would lend itself to paper piecing. The center is square in a square, and can also be paper pieced, if you like. The sides require a little extra comment.

As you look at the sides, and try to determine what order to place the fabric pieces, it appears too complicated for one piece of paper foundation. It can be broken down into more than one piece, to accomodate the process.

Here is what I did.

After drawing the side in its entirety, I looked for a portion that would be better suited to paper piecing. The center triangle worked for my purposes. So I broke the pattern into two patterns, the center and side triangles, with one center and two sides needed for each side portion of the block.

Thank you for this, I do enjoy paper piecing and have tried to make my own, but the thing I have trouble with is determining when to break the pattern into more than one piece, do you have a tip for like how you knew that the second pattern should be two different patterns instead of one?

Thanks!
Rachel

The thing to look for is y seams or something similar. I try to make the paper pieced pattern as simple as possible. The second pattern would have had a y seam when left as a whole. So I broke it down to another level.

Another way to look at it, is to check how things are going to be pieced. Do you have a seam that will not be workable by machine? You want to do all seams by machine, presumably.

Do you have a particular pattern you are working with?

No I don’t remember which one it was that I was trying to do. But if I come across it again I will post it here. I think I get what you are saying about the Y seam, maybe I just need to try drawing some out and test it with scraps to really see what will and won’t work.

Rachel

Thank you for the awesome tute!!! :D:D:D
When I convert, I also try and keep the individual blocks small enough to fit on one page, I don't like to tape pages together.... Or use a legal size piece of copy paper :wink:

CArol DOak has a very good tute on her web sight you can download for free on changing regular patterns to PP.