How to Make a Dresden Plate Block | a Shabby Fabrics Quilting Tutorial

hi I'm Jennifer from shabby fabrics look at this colorful beautiful quilt behind me is called a Dresden fan and I cannot wait to show you how to make it it is super simple using a few tools that I found out in the market the first one is the Dresden Plate ruler by creative grids you actually get the Dresden fans and then the center circle as well super handy ruler to have there'll be other projects coming down the pike using that ruler set so it's a great investment the other thing that we found when I was actually a cool market in Minneapolis is the Prairie pointer by Susan Cleveland and what a dynamic woman she is she demonstrated this product to me and I was absolutely hooked so I can't wait to show you how we'll use it in this project and I have more projects using the Prairie pointer coming up soon so be sure to subscribe to our videos so you never miss out on our fun DIY quilting and crafting projects so let's get started how do we use these tools to make this project the neat thing about this is it's absolutely attainable even by a beginner so our quilter so even though it looks elaborate and kind of dramatic because of of that big fan let me assure you it's totally easy stay with me and let me show you how to do it the first thing that we did with each Dresden as there's 20 fans so we just divide that up into five fabrics so that each fabric would be cut four times so let's just look at this we'll start with the the pink one so one two three four and five and you can see that's kind of a quadrant and then we repeated it again again and again so we'll get to the sewing part a little bit later on but I wanted to let you know you really only need five fabrics unless maybe why a bigger variety I love fabric I love color so you might choose to not have any repeating fabrics that's completely up to you but we just chose five so there'd be a little bit of repetition a little bit of continuity going on relevant being completely random so for today's example I'm going to use a spinny mat because as you're going to see as we're working through the project a spinning mat is super helpful so I'm not having to shift my fabric around I'll be working with the red today the first thing that I found when I was making the Dresden fans is I liked to go ahead and put sizing in there it gave the fabric a little more body so when I was sewing all those fans together things weren't getting distorted it just seems like it kind of holds the fabric so there's less distortion so the first thing that we'll do is we'll go ahead and bring our fabrics these have already been sized ahead of time and I'm just going to bring those to the spinning mat now we're going to use the Dresden portion of the ruler set and we'll put the circle which is for the middle aside for now now I want you to come in here and see the ruler there are several marks starting with the quarter a one inch we're going all the way up to let's see nine inches so for today's project I chose a six inch fan so there's the Sol align it to six so what that means is we're going to want to go ahead and once we lay our fabrics out I'm going to go ahead and make them six inches this way and in order to get four fans for the actual project that's on the wall I needed about ten ten and a half inches long so I just wanted to show you how I laid those out initially we'll get those cut and then we'll get started this is oh my gosh it was so much fun when I started working with this now this is where the ruler that are the mat comes in handy notice I'm not going to really disturb the fabric I'm going to just shift these around we are going to be having these on our website there is just a little bit of an extra shipping charge because it is an awkward shape but my gosh they're absolutely totally worth the money because as you can see I don't have to disturb my fabrics so I can be way way way more accurate let's turn that again I just I'm in love with this Matt and tell you what we'll do because I'm not exactly sure what's stacked underneath there and I want to make sure everything's stacked right on top of each other that's why I took a little bit more of a slice of the fabric okay 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 make sure you cut what's the old adage measure twice cut once oh yeah how many times have I learned that lesson let's just double-check that one more time 1 2 3 4 5 6 because the last thing you want is you've already starched your fabrics or you know and now you miss cut them that's not helpful so let's put that aside for now all right this is where this amazing ruler comes in to play now we can take the big rule on the way so let's turn this toward ourselves so you've got the blunt edge and we'll go ahead and put that on the bottom of the fabric and there is I'm going to move this over so it a little bit more room to cut okay so you can see how I'm lined up here and lined up here and I'll go ahead and cut now this is my favorite trick I'm not disturbing my fabric nothing's going anywhere I very carefully press back down and I have my first set of perfectly cut fans and of course what you would do next is now you just rotate that ruler let's come back over here so that's why you can get so many fans out of not that much fabric is because you're just kind of flipping the ruler now I want you I want you to see me do that again so there's the next set okay and now I'm going to turn it again actually a cut I should have left that there shouldn't I we'll put this down see how cool this is the spinny mat makes it so that you really just never disturb the fabric which means every we'll go together much more precisely and this will go like this and you'll cut and now you're done and you even have fabric left over do that so that's how you'll get everything prepared for your dress and fans now this is where the parade pointer comes in super handy so we're done with the spinning mat let's put that aside let's go ahead and bring over I have a small sealing iron with me today because I'm going to show you an option for how to turn the edges under for the center so that's the only reason today I'm working with this smaller iron rather than a standard iron normally of course I would have a standard iron but just to minimize the clutter on the table here we'll be working with that so we don't need this anymore and let's put that aside and we're only going to be working with just a couple fans because you're going to be able to quickly see how how neat this goes together let's put that aside ok the first thing to do is you've got the right side and you've got the wrong side let's just bring those two points together and I'm just going to put a little bit of a press in there because I don't want that to shift now because I'm working with a red Dresden today I went ahead and put red thread in my machine this is where the masterpiece superior threads color cards are so fantastic because this isn't just like color it is thread actually on these sheets of 75 colors of masterpiece thread it's 100% cotton it's a 40 weight Egyptian cotton actually 50 weight Egyptian cotton excuse me 600 yards on a spool I mean that's a lot of thread and I'll tell you it's strong but it's not like thick so you've got you know too much density in your thread so I cannot recommend for your threads enough to you so we're working with the red today because we're working with a red Dresden so we're just going to we've folded this in half and we're just going to sew a quarter of an inch you're used to that in quilting so let's do that now okay this is so fun now this next step is absolutely essential so don't miss this step in order to turn the Dresden properly you've got your quarter-inch boy I can barely see it because that thread blended in it just blends in so well I can barely see where my thread is I'm going to put a little bit of a cut right there obviously not cutting my thread but that little bit of that cut right there makes the turning possible let me show you what I mean this is where the prairie pointer is going to come in handy so we're going to take this to our pressing mat and we're going to go ahead and put the prairie pointer right in there now I want to I want to show you this on the parade pointer there's a centerline yes there's measurements going left to right but there's also a center line that's been etched into this piece of metal you want the seam to line up with that centerline is kind of like a pointer and so let's let's finesse that a little bit so when we press this open so you push this open with my fingers and how that seam is going right down that Center that's exactly what you want we're just going to put a little bit of a press in that just to hold that now we'll flip it right side out and again I'll be going in with a prairie pointer getting that point just as crisp as I possibly can again my seam is lining up with the center line on the prairie pointer and you can slide this out at this point because because it's metal it heats up pretty fast with the iron so you don't need to really keep that in there there's no harm you're not going to hurt the Prairie pointer because it's pretty solid metal you can leave that in there but it's just going to heat it up so you can potentially get you know your hand pretty hot look how cool this is look at that point that is fantastic look at this it's as sharp as it can be so I'm going to go ahead and make a second one and then when I come back I'll show you how to stow them together now that I have my second Dresden fan ready I want to show you how to sell them together and this is a really neat technique now you can imagine that when you place them right sides together you would think to start here that's right that's where you always start but knowing that you know when you start sewing something you typically go forward to go back you reinforce that area because you don't want it to unravel so that leaves a little bit of extra thread and if you're trimming your threads right there you could potentially be seeing them you know right at that juncture for that reason we're going to start down maybe 1/2 of an inch and then we're going to go reverse go back up to the top back down so when we trim our threads our threads are down about 1/2 an inch and they're not up here on the surface let me show you what I mean let's go to the sewing machine now as you can imagine it is essential essential that you stack these one absolutely on top of the other because otherwise you're going to get some distortion in your Dresden so I feel there as stacked on top of each other as they can be I'm going to go over this flying machine not starting at that top but we're going to start about a half an inch down and let's go in Reverse just go right back over where we started that reinforces the stitch go all the way to the bottom so now when you trim your threads others trimming with here now I can leave a little bit of a longer of a tail and I don't have to worry about that flaring up above and it's showing so now when we take this to the pressing that of course you're going to press the seam open so for that reason you might want to have a shorter than normal stitch length is because you will be pressing open just to reduce that bulk so let's go ahead and take that to our pressing mat and we'll be pressing open boy on the smaller projects the the feeling iron is it's super hot Wow I'd love it it's super hot but on smaller projects like this it's kind of like why have my big iron because this is so light it's so easy I don't have to have a big ironing board and it's you know if you're going to be using the iron all day it's so nice to use this because it's much lighter so there's the first two and then I would add on the other three to make a quadrant of five now this is really important as I mentioned before this is just a aqua set that we we start putting it together another Dresden you've got your first five now I would begin my next five and then my next five and x5 don't keep just adding on to the first one you will eventually get maybe a little bit of distortion so I want you to settle it put this together in four sections of five and then sew two of those sections together the other two sections together so that together top and bottom so that makes that's that makes sense now you will cut your background piece and we'll have the measurements to the Dresden project on our free download which is at the bottom of the homepage so if you've not been there before just go to Chevy fabrics calm at the very bottom there's free downloads there's so much there you're going just be inspired we are always coming up with fun stuff it's it's fun to work here it's so creative this group of us here at shabby and we hope that you find inspiration there too but go there and you'll find the measurements for the background now what I found was really handy once I got my Dresden together and even before I put the center on is this is when the temporary base and glue came in really handy I prefer that over pins because I'm either poking myself or they're catching on my clothes as I'm sewing so I really prefer the basting glue so all you'll do once you get your Dresden together is you're just going to be putting dots of glue on here this is a water-soluble product so if you do wash your quilt someday this will wash out and I've never had any discoloration if I don't wash it out over the period of years so I I stand behind this product product it's very affordable as well a bottle of glue will last you a long time just some dots of glue here and there get that onto the background and then you could be stitching it down with a coordinating thread or maybe with the mono poly clear from superior with a bottom line coordinating thread in the bobbin but what I want to talk you to right now about is the center of the Dresden now you've got a couple choices here these edges are obviously turned under I love that because you know once you get this sewn down and you can obviously do machine stitch that either a blind stitch or a blanket stitch if you want that to show you watch this this isn't going to be coming up it's down there now the center if you similarly want to turn the edges under I'm going to be showing you today how you can quickly do that using my applique technique or you could be using the quick method which is just putting some heat and bond on the back of your Center fabric you would be using your Center circle that came in The Dresden Plate ruler set you would just go ahead and draw around that well if this pen was working you would just draw around that cut that out and then you would applicate that on just peeling the heat and bond off the back ironing it down and stitching around it you know you've already turned these edges under with this technique I like the idea of turning the center under because then everything is turned under let me show you how quick and easy this is using our applique technique that video series is again on YouTube free for you to watch anytime you want and it's absolutely doable so if you've never tried it this may be a perfect time to jump in there and give it a give it a try what we did was we used freezer paper and on the circle you can see there's the dashed line we went ahead and make our made our center circle the size of the dashed line diameter there iron that to the back of our Center fabric and then I've got my iron ready to go this is a little bit of spray starch this is an applique stiletto and I have a fabric dye brush and all I'm going to do is brush on a little bit of this and then as I go I'll just be turning that edge under around the center pulling it through with a stiletto and if you watch the applique series we tell you how to prepare your templates I'm using freezer paper and I definitely recommend two layers of freezer paper and just so it gives it a little bit more rigidity so when you are pulling this fabric over that freezer paper template it's not caving in on you so you can see how I'm quickly moving through this process and in no time flat that Center will be done and I think frankly I really don't I really don't know that fusible is any faster because then you have to be concerned about completely securing the edges potentially with a satin stitch and that may be more density of stitching than you want because if you do end up washing this quilt you sometimes get just a little bit of fraying on the edges of fusible if you did not completely secure that edge I've had that happen when I've used like a cute little blanket stitch with fusible applique and then I've washed that project I get just a little bit of fraying around those edges so you can see that I mean was that what like 45 seconds to a minute and then I'm ready to go and then all you have to do is you simply take this off and you could use it again from another Center so once you get your Dresden all together and on your background then you it again put little dots of glue put your Center in place then you'll take your Dresden to the sewing machine and secure the edge with a stitch of your choice so I hope you enjoyed learning how quick easy and fun it is to make the Dresden fan quilt with shabby fabrics you you

Channel: Shabby Fabrics

Views: 143,547

Keywords: Dresden Plate, Dresden Fan, Shabby, Fabrics, Shabby Fabrics, Quilt, Quilting, Sew, Sewing, Jennifer, Bosworth, Jennifer Bosworth, Dresden, Free, Rainbow

Id: nl25MKsFf7U

Length: 20min 9sec (1209 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 08 2016