Friday, December 19, 2008

When to trim...

I've been sewing some small leaves whose ends lie underneath a very narrow stem. The ends of the leaves have to be trimmed to fit under the stem. Place the overlay over the block so that you can see exactly how much excess fabric to trim away. 

I always check my applique pieces with my overlay before I trim away fabric. I never trim blindly.



When I can, I wait to trim away excess fabric. These photos show a good example of that... You can see that I have sewn down the side of the stem with the leaves. Before sewing the 2nd side of the stem, I lift the stem up and trim the end of the leaves even with the stem's turned-under seam allowance. 

The longer seam allowance makes it easier to pin the stem firmly in place over the leaf. If the end of the leaf is not pinned down you have to be really careful when you sew, not to let the leaf "wander" out of position.

Happy stitching,

Becky

4 comments:

Carrie P. said...

Another great tip. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for another great tip. I have a question though about photography. How do you get such great photos of your quilts and blocks for the blog. I am terrible at taking photos of my work. Would appreciate any tips you have on how to take a picture of a quilt or block.

debbie said...

Thanks, the pictures were great, along with your written explanation.

Aaron Solomon said...

Thaank you for sharing