Originally Posted by Rachel
I guess I haven't experienced any patterns that didn't have seam allowances included. You're not paper piecing are you?
A lot of the older quilting books and magazines don't include seam allowances on the template shapes. And I have a book, 501 Quilt Blocks, that is just pictures of the blocks. It allows them to have that many one one book. Sometimes it's a pain to make the little templates, but the variety makes up for it, for me.
What I do to add the seam allowances is tape or glue (with gluestick) a copy of each template piece to a piece of paper, with enough space between to allow for the seam allowances. Then I lay my ruler against the piece with the 1/4" line on the seam line and mark the cutting lines, then cut the template pieces out. Curves are a little pickier, you just have to mark a lot more often to reproduce the curve smoothly.