Connie1948

I start and end all my seams with a small scrap (sleveges are great for this). This way your crooked seams are on scrap not on your piecing. I also find using a straight stitch only plate works great! I always sew with this plate when doing straight stitching. You can even move your needle a space or two if necessary for that perfect scant !/4 inch. Test this first! You can get this plate from your sewing machine dealer. Wishing you great beggining and endings!
Connie

Rose Marie

I tried the edging foot that covered my dogs and what a difference. No more pulling to the side. It works. The foot is clear with a metal guide just like the 1/4 in foot. You do have to adjust the needle for a 1/4 in seam. Mine came out at 3.0.

stay-at-home

i don't have this problem but i am using a pfaff hobby 1200. best thing for quilting i think. it has this neat little edger you can screw on for keeping the fabric in line at whatever measure you want. it's better that the usual 1/4 quilting foot. it really keeps the fabric in line and my seams always line up = well, almost always! worth looking into if you are buying a new machine.
Jeanne

stay-at-home

well the problem could be solved by sewing onto a water soluble stabilizer the last inch or so. in fact, any stabilizer would do if you don't care if it's embedded in the seam. however, it would be alot of work if you are talking about small squares.

dsb38327

I have spoiled myself making Bargello's with 2 1/2" strips. Now I want to move on and feel like I don't know how to sew when I try to make half square triangles. I didn't worry about a precise 1/4" or scant 1/4" seam allowance on the Bargello's, I was just consistent with what I did use (fat 1/4th).
I do want to be precise on the half square triangles so my pieces will fit and I won't lose my points. I recognized quickly that I need to learn how to make a 1/4" (or scant) seam allowance. I used our search function and have been reading posts. This post has so much good information in it I wanted to share it with you guys. It is a very old post and has some of our first members in it.
I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

ube quilting

A toothpick is mighty small. I use a chopstick as a stiletto to keep my fabric on line. It keeps my figers away from the needle.
peace :D

nativetexan

if you have most of the fabric to the left of your needle, keep your hand on that all the way through. the feed dogs do tend to pull on fabric a bit.