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Category Archives: Sewing Tutorial

Values: Half Square Triangle Tutorial

Half square triangles are amazing — one of the most beautiful and versatile quilting blocks, they’re also among the easiest to make. I especially love the look of a values quilt done in half square triangles. The contrast between the colors of your triangles allows you to create visual interest and depth. Here are some photos to show you what I mean. The squares are in the same position in each of these photos, just rotated so that the light and dark sides make different patterns.

You can see more variations of half square triangles in finished quilts in this Flickr gallery. Ready to try it yourself?

You’ll want to start with simple squares. I like to use charm packs, packs of precut five inch squares that usually include prints from an entire line of fabric. (The fabrics used here are Fossil Fern by Benartex, a fabric line that’s been in print for an amazing 15 years!)

Sort your squares into three piles by color value: light, medium and dark. Then pair up colors by taking one each from two different piles, placing the lighter on top with right sides facing. Draw a diagonal line from one corner to another. (This line won’t be seen, so feel free to use a regular pencil if you like.)

Use the line as a guide to sew a quarter inch seam along one side,

then the other.

Cut along the pencil line and you’ve got two new squares.

Press the seam open. Don’t worry about those wonky little bits that stick out, they’re about to be trimmed off.

I’ve started with a five inch square, but I’m going to trim it down to 4.5″. This will allow me to even up the square nicely. I like to use a square template for this because it’s got handy lines for me to follow, but you can also use the lines along your cutting mat. For the first cuts, I line up the center seam with a diagonal line on the template and make sure the fabric under the template is still larger than 4.5″, then cut along the right and top edges. Having that perfect center line will make piecing much easier later.

Flip the fabric around so the two uncut edges are at the right and top again. Line up the center seam with that diagonal line and make sure the bottom and left edges are at the 4.5″ marks. Careful cut the top and right sides.

This will give you a half square triangle made of two perfect triangles.

And then you’re ready to set them out in different patterns and see how you like them best!

4 Comments

Posted by Sarah Cooper on January 5, 2012 in quilting, sewing, Sewing Tutorial, tutorial

Tags: Half Square Triangles, Quilting, Sewing, Tutorial

Fabric Marble Maze

14 Oct

My sister in law asked me to make a tag blanket for a friend who’s having a baby, and while I was at it I also stitched up a marble maze for the new Mom. This isn’t something I’d give a baby (it does have a marble in it), but it’s something Mom might want to keep in her purse later on when her toddler needs a little quiet time in church or the grocery store.

It’s just two pieces of fabric sewn together, with an opening left for turning and a ribbon stitched in. (I cut my pieces about 6″x 9″ and triple stitched around the edges, so it would be extra strong.) Then I stitched lines about 1.25″ apart, stopping at least 1/25″ away from the opposite side to give the marble room to move. Alternate the starting sides for the lines and it makes a nice, simple maze.

Slip the marble in the opening and sew that end up, then slide the marble through the maze. It’s so soothing, even the adults I’ve handed it to love to play with it.

When it’s rolled up and tied with the ribbon, it takes up very little room in a purse and makes a nice alternative to a “quiet book”. And it only takes about five minutes to make!

How to Make Pennants

05 Oct

Pennants are EVERYWHERE, and no wonder — they’re cute, colorful and a great way to say, “Today is special!” They’re also really easy to make.

First, you need a template. Make a square of whatever size you like. (Mine was 6.5″ because that’s the width of my wider cutting guide, and I think that made a nice size pennant.) Fold the square in half, then cut on a diagonal.

Open the paper again to see your pennant shaped template. Use this as your pattern piece and cut out a little stack of triangles.

Take two triangles of fabric, place them right sides together, and sew along the “V” sides. I used two different fabrics for each side of mine. It gives a little more variety and made good use of my scraps.

Then carefully cut along the point to get rid of excess fabric without cutting through any stitches.

Turn your pennant right side out and press. You can leave it like this if you like, but I top stitched along the edges. I just like the look.

To string your pennants together, pin them into the fold of some 1/2″ double fold bias tape. My standard pack was three yards long. I left about an inch between mine, but you can bump them up together or space them further out, however you like. This string took 16 finished pennants.

To make the ends look more finished, open the tape, fold a half inch or so up and then refold and pin. Start sewing over this point.

Then just stitch down the bias tape, and you’re done!

Hang and enjoy.

Let me know if you make some, I’d love to see them!

4 Comments

Posted by Sarah Cooper on October 5, 2011 in Sewing Tutorial

Tags: How To, Pennants, Tutorial

Animal Alphabet Bean Bags and Storage Tote

15 Sep

Fabric panels can be a great way to make an easy sewing project. I bought a panel called Alphabet Flash Cards Panel by Lisa DeJohn for Red Rooster. (Click through to the link and you’ll see they have a bunch of nice coordinating fabrics and some projects ideas.) The name of the fabric lets you know it would make great flash cards, but I decided to go with bean bags. The squares made it so easy! Just cut them out with a quarter inch allowance, cut a piece of backing fabric, sew, fill and hand stitch closed. Simple!

The backs of the consonant bean bags are a simple cream flannel, but I used a flannel print on the vowels to make them stand out. A curious younger child might ask what makes those letters special, and hopefully an older child will enjoy figuring it out on their own.

The complete set of 26 bean bags took nearly all of a five pound bag of pinto beans as filling, so sturdy storage was needed. I could have used a plastic storage box, but tote bags just seem more kid friendly to me. I had a couple plain canvas tote bags left over from making stenciled gift bags and personalized Twitter tote bags for friends, but they seemed a little too tall and skinny, and I want the bag to be able to sit on a storage shelf.

Thankfully, this is an easy fix. I measured the bean bags, then turned a bag inside out and marked a line along the bottom to make the bag a little deeper.

This makes the bottom of the bag wider and the sides shorter. I sewed right along the line, triple stitching to make an especially strong seam, then cut off the excess fabric. Now two stacks of bean bags easily fit in the bag, and the bag stands on its own.

The fabric panel included a title square, which I thought would make a nice label for the tote bag. (Think how sweet this panel would be made into a little book!) I cut out the square, then cut out a matching piece of fusible interfacing.

I sewed them together with the right side of the fabric facing the “sticky” side of the interfacing. When I turned them right side out, I had a square that I could iron on to the front of the bag.

I sewed a piece of green felt down first to give a little border to the ladybug piece. It’s a little fiddly to sew on, so go slowly and make sure you aren’t catching parts of the bag that you don’t mean to sew. I ironed on the label and then stitched around it, too.

And that’s how you turn a fabric panel, a tote bag and a bag of beans into a lovely little toy complete with storage. If you want to make your own, I bought the fabric panel from Stitch Stash Diva on Etsy.

I enjoyed this project so much, I’ll be looking for more fabric panels soon!

4 Comments

Posted by Sarah Cooper on September 15, 2011 in Crafting for Children, Sewing Tutorial

Tags: Alphabet, Bean bags, Crafting, Fabric Panel, Learning Toys, Sewing, Toys

Jelly Roll Curtains

02 Aug

A “jelly roll” is a roll of fabrics that contains at least one print of each fabric in a collection, cut into long skinny strips, 2.5″ x 44″. There are usually 40 different prints in a roll, but often some prints will be duplicated. When I saw the Circa 1934 fabrics, I instantly wanted to use them in my kitchen. Well, I wanted to use them in my future kitchen. The one where I’ve already painted the cabinets quilter’s white, the counter tops are NOT cracked tile, and the backsplash is jewel-like, shimmery tiles … or maybe they’re pressed tin. Or something I haven’t thought of yet. Anyway, in my mind this fabric is a perfect fit for what will be. Since it was the easiest, most affordable part of the planned changes, I went for it even though it’s not the best fit for my kitchen today.

The pre-cut jelly roll strips made this a very quick project. I measured the window, figured out how many strips I needed for the width on each side, then cut the strips long enough to hem at the top and the bottom. (My window is 36″ tall. I cut the strips 40″ long to allow for neatening up the ends and hemming.)

Then, sew.

After I had the strips sewn together, I ironed the seams flat and top stitched along them.

This makes the fronts look nice and neat, and it also cleaned up the backs. Since I decided not to line the curtains, this seemed important to me. (I love the way the colors glow when the early morning sun shines through the window.)

The top and bottom are just turned under and hemmed, then held up with clip-style curtain rings. With the little clips, you don’t have to fuss with making a rod pocket — just sew a plain rectangle for your curtain and you’re good to go. How easy is that?

Bonus: I have plenty of fabrics left in the roll to make a few kitchen accessories, too!

7 Comments

Posted by Sarah Cooper on August 2, 2011 in Crafty Decorating, sewing, Sewing Tutorial

Tags: Circa 1934, Curtains, Jelly Roll, Moda, Sewing

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Category Archives: Sewing Tutorial

Values: Half Square Triangle Tutorial

Fabric Marble Maze

How to Make Pennants

Animal Alphabet Bean Bags and Storage Tote

Jelly Roll Curtains

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