Originally Posted by
Lorettan
Good Morning ladies! (and Gents)!
i primarily rag quilt. that is because trying to keep that infamous 1/4 inch seem is very stressful to me and im sure for alot of others. so here's something to ponder...why not 1/2 inch seems which to me, seems so much easier. now i know what the problem is there....bulk. so why not trim that after you sew? just a little waste but it is so much easier. alot of times you can use the edge of your presser foot to get that 1/2 inch. what are thoughts on this?
-Loretta
My thought is it is going to take a lot more fabric to do 1/2 inch seams. Just for a simple 12 inch 9 patch you need 13.5 inches of fabric if you use quarter inch seams and 15 inches of fabric if you use 1/2 inch seams. And that's just the width down the selvedge difference. You'll also get fewer squares across a strip too. Multiply that by the number of blocks you need and it'll really start to add up. I definitely don't want to spend $10 bucks a yard for extra fabric for the inside of a quilt!
The solution is to get a quarter inch foot or use some method of marking the quarter inch on your machine and work on getting a consistent seam allowance.