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What is a scant 1/4" seam???
I hear this question all the time. It was a question I asked myself when I started quilting. In quilting we generally sew our seams with a 1/4" seam allowance. And that is where this mystery begins... |
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My first advice would be to get
a 1/4" seam allowance foot for your machine. This will help with your accuracy and it just makes it so much easier. The photo above is the foot for my machine, I love the fabric guide on the bottom right, it makes it sooo easy. These days, you can get a 1/4" seam foot for all sorts of machines, even older models. |
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Next, you should test to see if your
1/4" foot is accurate. I run the edge of an index card along my foot and sew a row of stitches, then I measure to see if it really is a 1/4". Mine was, if yours is not you will have to adjust for the difference. Okay, so now we can sew a perfect 1/4" seam and that is the heart of our mystery ~ we don't want that. WHAT? You may ask? We don't want perfection? |
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Yes, we do want perfection and that is
when we have to think of the whole quilt block and thus, the whole quilt. We must take into consideration the fact that we have to press that seam open and in doing so will lose just a bit of fabric as we do so. And that is where the scant 1/4" seam comes in. |
Originally Posted by american homestead
My first advice would be to get
a 1/4" seam allowance foot for your machine. This will help with your accuracy and it just makes it so much easier. The photo above is the foot for my machine, I love the fabric guide on the bottom right, it makes it sooo easy. These days, you can get a 1/4" seam foot for all sorts of machines, even older models. I don't know why manufacturers don't make a 'scant' foot - all they need to do is to file off a tad - if not, why don't quilters get their DH's to do it for them? |
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If we sew all our seams just a bit smaller
than 1/4" (and I mean 1 or 2 thread widths smaller) we will have room to accomodate the loss of fabric as we fold and go over the stitching as we press. If you move the fabric just slightly to the left of the guard, you will do just fine. Okay, at this point some of you are probably saying, "You must be kidding! Why should I worry about 1 or 2 threads?" But that is when I will remind you that we are quilting! In a 12" block we can have many seams as we put that block together and if we lose just a bit in every seam, they add up to a big difference at the end. I am always hearing from quilters that their blocks don't turn out to be the correct size. If you cut correctly and use a scant 1/4" seam, your accuracy should improve immensely. Note: On many new machines you can move the needle easily and this would do make the seam just a bit smaller than 1/4". Since all machines are different I can't tell you exactly how to do this but if you visit the shop where you purchased your machine, they could tell you exactly how to do this and that could make a scant 1/4" seam even easier |
I love my 1/4" foot and had to adjust it slightly for the scant 1/4". Now my blocks come out the same size and I wouldn't be ashamed to swap them. Kudos to the inventor :)!
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I still haven't got mine right but will keep trying.
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I enjoyed your post with the information and humor! It really makes sense. Thank you for sharing!
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I brought a seam guide to screw onto my machine. You can get them for under 5 bucks at Amazon. You just screw them into the hole on the side of your machine. I also use electric tape too. I will use anything that will make my seams perfect. The seam ripper is not my friend.
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