I'm on an advice-seeking bender at the moment, but I hope you don't mind as you guys always deliver the goods!
When I wrote about my patchwork bunting tablecloth, I got some really helpful advice from Sew K2 about seams:
"The only suggestion I have is that unlike clothing
construction where you iron your seams open, you should iron your
quilting seams to one side. Usually you iron the seam towards the dark.
Occasionally you will iron a seam open to reduce bulk, but not often."
So with this sound advice fresh in my mind, I've embarked on more patchwork fun and as you can in the picture, I've pressed all my seams to alternate sides to reduce bulk.
My question to you is this: What do I do next? How do you finish seams in patchwork or quilting? Do you leave them like this and suffer the bulkiness in certain areas? Do you trim them down and by how much before you start endangering the strength of the seams? Do you finish them in any other way?
So many questions...with hopefully many expert answers.
Thanks in advance!
I normally just leave them as they are (with 10mm seam allowance). I normally press all the seams open and have not noticed any bulkiness issues. Here's a quilt I recently made http://kniinkuinkoti.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/tilkkupeitto-vauvalle.html
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing your finished quilt!
Because the standard seam allowance for a quilt is just 1/4 inch there's nothing much to trim and I've never heard of anyone finishing the seam allowance. I'm looking forward to seeing the right side of the quilt in the picture, it looks very cute.
ReplyDeleteHi Marie,
ReplyDeleteI've never finished a patchwork seam, it will be fine as it is. Quilting gives it a bit more strength too and wadding will help disguise any bulkiness. I looks great, are you making a quilt? I can't wait to see the results!
Sarah
I've always left my seams like that when doing patchwork. I was the opposite way round to you and made some quilts first before clothing, on my first dress I also just left the seams as I had in patchwork.. not good! Haha
ReplyDeleteDon't finish these seams. Once you put the wadding and the backing fabric on, there won't be any bulkiness issues and the seams will have all the strength/support they need from the quilting stitches you use to hold the three layers together. Your seams look really neat and flush - well done to you!
ReplyDeleteI also nornally press all my seams open as I find it reduces bulk more than pressing to the side. However, many people press to alternate sides with patchwork because it helps the seams "nest" and align.
ReplyDeleteYou do not need to finish your seams if you will be adding batting. If you're not adding batting and you plan for this to be a curtain or something, you can back it with muslin or another fabric to protect the seams. If you're really worried about them and you plan to make a project with no batting that will be washed frequently then you can pink the seams, but make sure to not cut them down too much.
I have been quilting for 14 years and I do not finish my seams. My quilts have held up well through repeated washings. Quilting cotton is fairly tightly woven. As for pressing seams to one side, I almost always press seams to one side but you might be interested to know that there are quilters who advocate pressing seams open to allow the seams to lie flatter and reduce bulk. Whatever works for you!
ReplyDeleteHi Marie, I too have always pressed my seams open and there's no need to finish them as they get enclosed within the quilt sandwich. Because you'll be quilting thru all layers, the unfinished seams get effectively sewn down anyway and I've never noticed any bulkiness. Neither have my recipients as far as I know! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThe reason that quilters press to one side is that if you quilt along the seam then that thread will go into what is called the ditch. Pressing to the dark side is so that the seam will not show thru. There are many ways to press but depends on what you are going to do with the quilting. Another reason pressing to one side is that when quilts were handquilted if the seam failed then it would be more secure if there was not a gap.
ReplyDeleteIf you are doing an allover design with quilting then pressing open would work just fine. I am a former professional quilter.
Everyone has given great advice so far, so I don't have anything to add. Just a question. Are you going to quilt it yourself? Or do like I do and quilt-by-check? That is when you hire someone to quilt it for you.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't finish the seams either, I just assume that the quilting stitches will overlap the seam allowance here and there and that they won't fray inside the quilt layers.
ReplyDeleteI also always open my seams but I never thought of pressing to the dark side. That's a good idea when sewing with white base fabric.
Pressing to one side is the traditional method. However, the modern way is to press them open particularly if you want to quilt 1/4 inch either side of the seam lines. Have a look at Elizabeth Hartman from ohfransson.com
ReplyDeleteI'm making a patchwork quilt at the moment and I've just trimmed all my seams with pinking shears.
ReplyDeleteYou don't finish the seams because unlike clothing patchwork gets a lot of tugging, i.e., quilts, pillows, tablecloth. You don't want to have skinny seams. I never open the seams when I'm quilting.
ReplyDeleteBut, what I would do is sew a very thin lining to the back of it and then every now and then on the patchwork tack a corner of a patchwork with some pretty thread. It will look nice and the lining would give your tablecloth more strength and the extra fabric on the back would absorb the seams. It's more work but I think you'll like the way it looks....
Hi. I'm a "quilter" more than a sewist. I've only made some patchwork quilts, so I'm kinda new to that, although I'm obsessed with reading blogs about it all day long. Now I'm inspired to whip up some clothes, because I really like vintage dresses. So that's how I ran into you, off someone else's page or they mentioned you in a post. I look forward to learning and being inspired! It's funny that today's post is on a quilt instead of a garment :)
ReplyDeleteYou can press your seams open or to the dark. To the side, so it doesn't show through light colors, and open so it's not hard to quilt. If you are just sewing lines instead of free motion quilting, it doesn't matter what you do. Christa Quilts (who owns the fabric store) just posted in the last week or so why she presses her seams open, which most people don't do because of the tradition, I guess. Plus pressing to dark makes sense. (http://christaquiltsblog.com/) She does it because she finds free motion quilting easier. She also does it to make her points really accurate. I'm doing my first actual quilt this weekend! How do you plan on sewing yours?
-karrie
I leave them as they are - easy peasy!
ReplyDelete