(light music) - Are your finished blocks small? Or are they wonky or out of square? To get accurate piecing, you need the trifecta of accurate cutting, straight sewing, and a
good ironing technique. Today's video will be
about tips and tricks for straight sewing to
get that perfect block. And stay to the end 'cause
there's a fabric giveaway. So stick with me, and I'll
show you how to do it. (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Karen Brown of
Just Get It Done Quilts. I give you tips, tricks,
and strategies to help you make the quilt that you want to make. I'm sure you're like me. When you started quilting, you thought straight sewing
was going to be a no-brainer. I mean how hard could it be? And then this happened. And this happened, and this happened. If you know me by now, you know that I would
have to find a better way. The first thing I discovered is that there's three
distinct parts to a seam. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end, and they all have different strategies. Before we start, you need
to clean your machine. Not just under the sewing plate,
but down around the bobbin. And start with a fresh needle. If you can't remember the last time you changed it, change it now. For my everyday sewing,
I use a universal 80, and I try to change it every other week. If you have a single
stitch plate, use that. And I like my stitch
length at 2.1 for piecing. So when you start to
sew, there's two issues. First, your threads are loose, and they're not attached to anything, Your sewing machine, to
get that good stitch, your thread needs to be under tension. So you need to secure
them before you start. Sometimes if you're
starting on the downstroke, just securing them on the
cutter will be enough. But it does give you a
loose thread that you have to deal with and
sometimes is unsightly. But if it's on the upstroke,
your thread is too short, and when you start your machine, your thread will be pulled
through your needle, and you'll have to start again. So if you make your threads longer so they don't slip through, you're going to end up
with a knot on the back of your block ranging from the
not so bad to the very bad. And some of them will be so bad, you'll need to stop your machine, and cut them out, and
possibly damaging your fabric. I find the best way is to use a header. A header is a piece of fabric that you sew before your block to secure your threads. It can be a scrap piece of fabric, it can be a mini charm. This way, any thread issues
happens on this piece of scrap and not on the good stuff. The upside is that you can sew these headers into a bonus block. I have a series on scrap blocks, and if you want to check it out, I'm going to put a link up here, and I'll put a link in the notes. Now, the second issues at
the beginning of a seam is the motion of the feed dogs. If you're sewing two square or
rectangular pieces of fabric and you're using the header, you shouldn't have any issues. But if you're sewing an HST... Raise your hand if any of
you have had the pleasure of the tip of an HST getting
sucked into your machine and coming out worse for wear? What happens here is the
feed dogs on one side are engaged with the fabric, but the feed dogs on
the other side are not. Even when you use a header piece, the fabric of the HST
still gets distorted. That's because there's
no structural integrity in this fabric in the tip, so simply cut off the tip
of the HST before you start. And that when you move from
your header to your HST, both feed dogs will be engaged. So we've got another situation here. What happens when you have
two HSTs coming together? So one of the challenges
that the presser foot has is that as the feed
dogs are feeding fabric, it has to go from zero layers of fabric to two layers of fabric. Now, when you have two HSTs together, you're going from zero to four, and there's some circumstances
where you're going from zero to eight or even more. And all these layers can get backed up. So the number one thing is make sure that they're ironed properly
so that they lie flat. Which I have totally
covered in another video, and I'll link that here
and link it in the notes. So don't just use a header,
use the high header. In this case, I'm folding
two pieces of scraps to have a level of four, and you can use this header over and over again, it's not precious. And opening up your fabric to find that your points meet up never gets old. Now, I really thought this was
the easy part when I started. I had no idea how much
a seam could wobble. When we quilt, we have all the weight of the fabric on this side and only a quarter of
an inch on this side. Often the feed dogs in your pressure foot are even larger than
that quarter on an inch. If your brain likes to
wander off like mine does, you'll have even more
difficulty staying on track. If that happens to you too, please leave a comment in the notes. Another challenge that
your sewing machine has is feeding the top fabric through and the bottom fabric
through at the same rate. Some fabric is more slippery than others. There's a lot of forces at play here, and it's all centred around
the needle as a pivot point. And I found that just
trying to follow the line on my sewing machine was just
made it too loosey goosey. I tried all sorts of things
to get my seams straight. I bought a quarter of an inch foot. I bought a quarter of an
inch foot with a ledge, but it just wasn't big
enough surface for me. I tried sticking down rulers, I tried buying a piece of
plexiglass and sticking it down, but I never found them very secure. And finally, the best results I got was actually the cheapest. I made a ledge out of masking tape. I stacked five layers together, stuck them on top of each
other, and then stuck them down. In fact, I liked it so
much, I made a video, Five Sewing Hacks With Masking Tape. I just reuse it, and
reuse it, and reuse it. And the great thing about it is it works on all the machines. So I use it on my traveller,
I use it on my good one. You don't need a specialised foot. But one last point, even if you line it up
on this quarter inch, and you make a perfect line, and you measure it, it's
all quarter of an inch, the real point is after you iron it. Even if you use a really
good ironing technique, that thread takes up room in that seam, and the fabric, as it rolls over, occupies a little bit of space. So always make a tester
and then adjust your ledge. Now, you will likely have a situation where you're sewing on
two layers of fabric, and then it bumps up to four or more. If the bump is high, I stop my machine, lift up the presser foot, put
that high header in there. There's no shame in stopping and making sure that
your fabric lies flat. And it'll bring a smile
when all the points line up. At the end of the seam, the
forces on the fabric change. It likes to lift, and it likes to twist. This is partly due to inattention. We think we're done, or
our fingers are too big to give it the support
for that last little bit. The first thing you should
do is just use a stick. I use a cuticle stick that I
bought from the dollar store. But you can use a
chopstick, a Purple Thing, or even a pin just to keep enough weight on that fabric edge to the very end. If you are chain piecing, just let the next one bump right up to it. HSTs are particularly prone
to stretching at the end here. It really helps, trim off
that tip and to use a stick. So when you have two HSTs
meeting on the bottom corner, we use the same techniques
that we've used before. It really helps when they
lie as flat as possible, and we ensure that the
tips are trimmed off. There is no shame in stopping or slowing your machine just to ensure that the fabrics are
lying flat on the back. And perfect points are your reward. If you have any other tips and
tricks for sewing straight, please leave them in the comments below. So this week, I reached a
milestone on my channel, I reached 80,000 subscribers. It was such a wonderful feeling and such a great start to the fall. Thank you everyone for all your support. So to share the joy, I'm giving away this
lovely stack of fabric. I will ship it anywhere in the world, you just need to do three things. One, you need to subscribe, and you can subscribe, you can hit this little red YouTube
icon in the corner here. You can also hit this big
red YouTube Subscribe button. Or click on this circle
here with my face in it. Two, leave a comment in the notes below. And three, go to my website,
Just Get It Done Quilts, and sign up for the newsletter. I'll put the link in the notes below. I will be holding the draw
on September 27th, 2019. If you want to watch or rewatch my video on a really good ironing technique, I'm going to put it here. Or watch one of my other videos. If you like this video,
please give it a thumbs up, hit the bell, and YouTube will notify you when I make new videos. You can also find me
on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest at Just Get It Done Quilts. So take care, and I'll see you next time.
