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Modern Art Quilters
Free Tutorial - Making Really Even Skinny Lines
Because It's Important
Aitchbee's Traditional Miniatures - as with all proper miniature quilts, these could be bed-sized, but both the above examples are less than 11 inches square
Patterns and fabric packs here
If you make a teeny wobble in your sewing, maybe 1/64th of an inch, on a strip 2 inches wide, no-one will notice. When you make such a wobble on your miniature quilt's inset borders, it bites your eye...
Here are two methods of keeping things on the straight and narrow...
Note that I sew with a 1/4 inch seam to start with, it's almost impossible to do this any skinnier, then I trim as required
For my sample I took a piece of white (from the scrapbox; I recommend you make a sample before you attack the actual piece) and cut a 1-inch strip for the insert
I want my insert to finish here at 1/4 inch, but a narrower piece is pretty hard to manage...
Sew the two Right Sides Together with a 1/4 inch seam...
Don't press the seam yet
Take your ruler and a regular pencil (white pencil for dark fabrics) and mark a sewing line - I made this 1/4 inch here
Now press the insert towards the background nicely and sew the whole thing onto the other side of the border
Press efficiently...
Trim any excess as desired
Now, this is my Secret Weapon - a very narrow foot. If you press the insert fabric towards the background you can run the edge of your foot along the join very nicely and make an even seam that way - try with your regular foot, and if you can move your needle position on your machine you may well be able to get a very nice skinny result
Like so...
To finish your miniature masterpiece, you will want to do a nice narrow binding - here I cut a strip about 1-1/4 inches wide. I pressed one third of the way across Wrong Sides Together
Make the binding in your usual way (see various methods elsewhere on this site), mitreing the corners
And finish by hand...
4, The Raveningham Centre, Beccles Road, Raveningham, Norfolk, NR14 6NU. United Kingdom