Curves, curves, and more curves
 

What is your Go-To method of sewing curves?
A walking foot? Pins? The Curve Master? Starch and winging it?
I am designing my first quilt pattern, which is basically 60% curved pieces. My first trials turned out terrible and I started to wonder if my pattern was bad or if I was just terrible at sewing. Well, it turned out that both of those were true! I've finally got the pattern templates perfect, but I still haven't found that sweet spot for doing my curves. I bought The Curve Master foot out of desperation, but it seems like I should be able to do this without giving myself an ulcer. I have to write a pattern telling people how to do it, but don't feel like I've figured it out myself!

It takes lots of practice before curved seams come out well.

I have had luck with the Drunkard's Path block. It can be sewn many ways. I use lots of pins and take my time. I haven't done freeform curves at this point, but it absolutely can be done. Just keep at it.

Agree with Claire123 ..... pins and slow stitching.

I have a Curve Master foot but find that a quarter inch seam foot works just as well. Align the beginning, hold one piece in each hand, raise the left side slightly, and go. When you're about 1/2" from the end, use sharp tweezers to hold the two pieces together. This takes some practice and coordination but you get the hang of it fairly quickly. It is essential, though, to hold the left (top) piece up. Maybe there's a YouTube that may help you?

How shallow - or deep - are the curves?

I find the center point of both pieces, convex on top match the centers & place a pin, then pin the two ends. Concave on bottom, convex on top I then ease the two pieces together as I stitch the seam. Hope that makes sense.

Like the seam allowance? 1/4"
Or like the diameter? There are two curved seams on the block the first is a 3.5" diameter (1.75 radius), so it's small, and the second finished seam ends up being a 7" diameter (3.5" radius).
Is that what you are asking? They are definitely smaller, and I have sewn large curves before without a problem so I'm sure that had something to do with it.
I agree with Claire and Beth. Pinning is how I've seen the most accurate seams, it's just very time consuming, and I have a cheap machine so every time I stop there's a little janky part that goes all crooked. (There isn't a needle down option)
I also don't want to turn people off because it seems so exhaustive.

I use Curvemaster for the curves like half circles...anything that would require many pins to make it without puckers. I bought it for a DWR and loved the way it worked without pins or a lot of extra time.

Umm, wow, I think I've been doing it upside down. See what I mean? It might be that I'm just not very good at this.... Okay I've got to get my kids out the door and then I'll go try it with concave on the bottom. I'll update in a bit.

Smaller curves (your 3.5 diameters) are going to be hardest. I did a quilt with circles, and decided to redesign it using nothing smaller than a 5 or 6 inch diameter circle. but that was just me. Partial circles/arcs/curves at that smaller size should be more doable than full circles. Starch was definitely my friend, as it kept things from falling apart too bad with frequent seam ripping, otherwise, like the others said, match lots of points, whether that be all the apexes or half way/quarter way marks (not sure if you are doing long wiggly curves or quarter circles or what. Good luck, it'll be worth the effort when done!

I have the Curve Master but could never get the hang of it , so I continue to struggle with curves .

I find the half and quarters of the two pieces and mark or finger press small hash marks. It gives me more reference points. For small circles, I have had good luck with gluing basting and then top stitching.

Or you can use light weight fusible interfacing and then applique the inner part to the outer part.

I'm not sure curves are meant to be quick and easy. They are meant to be something you take your time doing. I would find it very difficult to write a pattern without having my own expertise up to par.

I pinch and mark the center of both pieces, pin that and then the ends. I pin anyway, and I pin a lot on curves filling in by quarters from the middle and sides. Generally it curls up in a ball as I sew but I can't swear on which side I put on which way.

Although I generally press open, curves are the only time I press to the side.

I do everything I can to avoid handwork but I'd say that curves like on a drunkard's path are probably best done by hand below maybe about a 4" final size. Sure you can (and I have) machine pieced smaller ones but there are diminishing returns.

Melon shaped arcs aren't much of an issue for me, and grandmother's fan sized ones are relatively easy as well. However, this past year I used what I call the "Eleanor Burns Technique" using rickrack for the curved edge and I really liked it, it added texture and interest to my project and was very easy to use. I think it starts around 18-19 minutes into this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktzb2wMMwzc

Like GingerK, I find using a glue stick (washable) works really well. I run a line of glue along both pieces. Then I attach the ends and the middles; once that's done, I ease in the rest so the whole curve is glued. If you are using good 1/4 inch templates, it will fit together perfectly, and then the sewing is easy.

I use a lot of pins and clip carefully to make my curves.

I think of "concave" as a nipped in waistline - and "convex" as a padded bra.

Could the pattern be somewhat modified to make the curves "gentler"

This is exactly how I do it, and it works beautifully. I agree, you don't need the Curve Master. It's the same technique the inventor of the Curve Master teaches to use her product, but you can achieve the same results with your regular foot.

I also agree with this. Years ago I started an apple core quilt, the pieces went together just fine but I ran into major problems when I started to assemble the rows. Went online and researched, found that concave on bottom worked beautifully. But when I realized I would have to either assemble the rows by hand, or, if sewing by machine, take the quilt out of my machine and flip it after every block, I wadded it up and tossed it in a corner. :p

Peckish, don't say that. i have tons of apple cores cut out. hopefully hand stitching will not be in my future. my fingers do not like it. I love curves though. mainly drunkard's path blocks so far.

I found this youtube video helpful. It is by Sew Kind of Wonderful - they make the Quick Curve Rulers.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...AB3E&FORM=VIRE

She uses a regular foot and holds the two pieces in different hands, concave on top, and eases the two together using the bottom right hand side of the foot as a guide, along with her fold marks to make sure she stays on track.

She is very speedy but assures anyone can do it with more practice. I tried it a few times (much more slowly) and they came out better than I expected with very little puckering (not worth redoing once ironed).

I use a lot of pins but I'm going to try glue (the washable kind)

Well, there are two options I came up with as alternatives. The first is to turn under the edges and applique them. This actually works pretty well. I tried both hand and machine applique, both were pretty successful, but the machine method was much faster. I used tiny dots of washable Elmer's to keep the pieces in place, then stitched just a hair over the folded edge, it turned out great.

The other alternative is one I saw at a vendor's booth somewhere. I smacked myself in the head and said "why didn't I think of that." She simply sewed the pieces as raw-edge applique, and used the inevitable fraying as a design element. I plan to take that step even further by sewing chenille strips on top of the raw edges, if I can find whatever corner I chucked that UFO in. :D I plan on making my own chenille by cutting 1/2" wide strips, layering them 3 or 4 deep on the seam, then stitching on top. Once it's washed and dried, I'll take a stiff chenille brush to fluff the fibers and make the quilt very texture-y. Sounds fun, doesn't it? :)

I agree with a couple of members here that lots of pins and slow sewing does help.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I thought I would give this a try and had to Google what foot might be compatible with my machine (Shark Euro Pro). I pinned, I practiced, and then I went to Nutall's. Using a plain 1/4" seam guide foot has worked miracles!! Every single Curve has come out perfectly. The Curve Master was fighting me the *entire* time I was using it...
On a different note, I have a Curve Master now for sale - lightly used - lol!

Sincerely thank you all for giving me ideas I seriously tried almost every one of them.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I thought I would give this a try and had to Google what foot might be compatible with my machine (Shark Euro Pro). I pinned, I practiced, and then I went to Nutall's. Using a plain 1/4" seam guide foot has worked miracles!! Every single Curve has come out perfectly. The Curve Master was fighting me the *entire* time I was using it...
On a different note, I have a Curve Master now for sale - lightly used - lol!

Sincerely thank you all for giving me ideas I seriously tried almost every one of them.

I do like Ckcrowl and find that if I sew fairly slow, they work just fine--I'd add two things--with a DP or other curved block that isn't paper pieced, I plan on doing some trimming of the block usually, and secondly, be sure that you are cutting the straight sides of the DP block on the straight of grain so that the curves (both convex and concave) are actually on the bias, allowing for the stretching needed to get the matched edges.

Here is a tiny tutorial I did for the last person who asked this question. https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...ml#post8281178

Interesting. One post says concave shape on the top and another says concave on the bottom. Which do you find gives the best results.

I always refer to the concave as the 'smile' and I find it works better when I put the 'smile' on top. A few times, I found myself doing it the opposite way... it worked, but didn't seem so easy to me

Ok, I feel like I've learned so much trying everyone's suggestions. I've also ripped a ton of seams.
So first, the comment about cutting on the grain is Sooooo right on. I learned that the hard way last week, so no problems there for me.
Second, which curve goes on top really depends on which method you use. I find that when I use pins having the convex or 'smile' piece on top is the easiest... The same can be said if you slowly feed it in using a walking foot.
If you are using the 1/4"seam guide method or the curve Master foot method the convex or boob piece should be on top.
Third, as said before, using the seam guide or curve Master method marking the half way point is just good for my reference so I know if I'm off or not.
Forth, I Stinking timed myself using the 1/4" seam guide method for my inside curves (the little ones) from grabbing the fabric, lining it up, in the machine, sewing, and then sniping the thread, it took a total of 1 minute 22 seconds. I find that even with my tight curves that method Yields a perfect curve every time quickly and efficiently. For larger broad curves I still find pinning is the way to go.