Hand Pieced Dresden FAIL
 

Please help me learn from this. Did I stretch fabric by pulling? sew bad seams? Need to cut on grain?

Out of town, ran out of cut hexes so I attempted to hand piece a dresden (one on left, right is machine pieced). Lesson learned: do not do this without a template for marking. The hole in the center is much bigger (hard to tell in photo).

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Actually took the wind out of my first-attempt-at-hand-piecing sail. I was doing so well with the hexagons I thought I could hand piece anything. Wrong!

You probably just stretched the seams a wee bit. Doesn't take much. And if you were hand stitching, you were probably holding the fabric over your fingers. That would be enough. I think you did great for a first attempt. Don't give up!

Love the colors of your fabric. Just a question, I thought, when I looked at the info for this die, that there were only 12 blades that made up the 'plate'.

Try it again with marked stitching lines. It should turn out more accurate then.

Sometimes one can accomplish wonders with a little starch (I sure hate to admit that), hand smoothing/shaping, and pressing.

Dresden plates can have any number of "blades", I have seen as many as 20 in one block. At a yard sale last year, I bought 18 dresden plates for $3.50. They are hand-sewn, and each plate has 14 blades.

Wow, maybe it should be 12?? Thanks for input.

Dresden Plate blades can be a multiple of wedge sizes, as long as the degrees of the angles add up to 360*....

The nice thing about Dresdan's is you can "take them in" so they fit!

Have you tried pressing or steaming them? Sometimes, when you're dealing with bias, a little steam helps a lot. :)

Still a good effort though! love the fabrics. Learning is half the fun and thank you for being brave enough to share - I learnt something because you were willing to share.

I love your fabrics. I may be a little "off the beat," but it seams:p to me that if you hand-stitch all of the plates it won't matter if they are a little off the size intended. Same for if they are machine stitched.

could you go over a few of the seams to make them more uniform? I would think that you should be able to make it work with this and spray starch. As far as the circle being a bit larger...make your center a bit larger.

Be sure to always draw your sewing line and with starching, that should help. With Hexs, one doesn't need to stitch on a seam line.

Needs a yo yo.

Yes, I've found Yo-Yos cover a multitude of errors. Plus they're so darned cute.

Thanks for posting. I too learned from your mistake. Don't give up.

There is nothing wrong with the blades that a good pressing won't cure. You will have to fudge a bit when you applique them to the background because some of the blades will overlap each other a little bit. If there is too much overlap, blind stitch it down. No one will ever see it once it is quilted.
My pattern makes 20 blades. Dresden templates come with several different degree angles, so the number of blades is different depending on the angle. It doesn't matter as long as the hole in the middle is 360 degrees. Don't fool with trying to get the ends of the plates in the hole even. That doesn't matter since you will be covering it with a center. Dresden is my favorite block, although I make the blades with points.
I don't have the patience to do the lovely and more feminine round--topped blades. froggyintexas

I think it's a great first attempt at hand piecing. It's easy enough to stretch the fabric when sewing, but it really doesn't look that bad - love your fabric.

I like them both, I'm a beginner & couldn't even get them to look that good if I tried I'm sure! And something hand sewn is special to me.
Jeri