How to Square up a Quilt Panel

welcome to so very easy my name is Laura and I'm going to have a two-part video for this particular project the first part is how to block a panel we all love our panels they're fun to use they're big and they're beautiful but sometimes they're just not perfectly square so at this part we're going to talk about blocking which means we're not doing any cutting we are going to block it on the iron so it stays straight and it's going to be straight when we need it the second part we're going to use a panel now I'm going to be using a panel from Northcott and it is a advent calendar so there are a lot of fun to work with they're quick and easy and in that video we're going to have a lot of fun I have some great little tips and techniques to go along the way but for today let's get this panel blocked an advent calendar panel is this long panel and it's all in one piece and get to fold these up and they're going to make pockets to put little things in but a lot of times they're not straight so we need to straighten them up the first thing I like to do is wash that panel the reason is it gets rid of some of the starch and the sizing and that way I'm going to be able to work with that fabric a lot easier because it's going to be softer to work with so I'm going to wash the panel first and then after that I'm going to trim it because those salvages are tighter we need to trim that fabric off we only need to go about a quarter of an inch just to trim off this main hard piece of fabric because we're going to want to move this fabric a little and I don't want this to hold it into place a lot of times along the sides you can have little additional things so I like to cut in between the additional stuff on the side and my edge so I'm going to have a little bit of this background fabric on both pieces on the one side there's going to be lines that whoever's cut the fabric has been able to follow and so for the other I'm just going to be cutting right in between those lines and then just trim off the top selvage I just want to leave a little bit of the background fabric on there are two different ways you're going to be able to block these once I have all of the pieces trimmed off if you have an ironing board you could do it on an ironing board if you don't you can do it on a large surface so let's do the first one on a large surface if you have a large mat this is a fun time to use it but you just need a surface that's going to be large enough that this whole piece of panel can lay down flat and then we need to make this panel damp just a bottle with water will be fine just going to dampen it if you don't put it in the dryer after washing it you're going to already have a damp and you can work with it that way what's this panel is damp I'm going to be able to maneuver it to straighten it up we need some straight edged rulers or yard sticks I'm gonna start by laying this out on a flat surface kitchen table countertop anything is going to work the first thing we want to do is do the straight line so I'm going to use the straight ruler if you use a ruler that has one of these great anti slip surfaces it'll be nice if you turn it upside down so you have the slippery part touching the fabric I want a straight edge right along the edge of that print you can do it along this edge or you can do it along this edge I want to make the ink line or the pattern straight I'm going to be able to move the fabric just with my hands moving at one direction or moving in from the other and I'm going to use the straight edge of that ruler to help me by having that straight edge down and I can see where some of the fabric is not following that straight edge take that fabric and tuck it up underneath that ruler and other parts I'm going to be able to take it and pull it this way so you're ready to be able to push and pull the fabric underneath this ruler until you have a nice straight line once that edge is done I want to do the long edge you can use a square ruler or a long edged ruler what I want to do is make sure that I do not move the straight edge that I've already done so I'll put the one edge of the square up along that straight line and I'm going to be able to adjust the second edge you can see the edge of this ruler and the fabric is not squared up and without moving this top edge I'm going to shift this fabric into place I can pull it a little bit until it comes nice and straight and I can also pull it from underneath so what I'm doing is I'm going to use straight edges and I'm pulling and pushing the fabric in until these edges are straight all the way around it's going to be easy to pull the fabric going one way or the other because of it being damp it's very pliable once you have all of those edges squared up the inside you're going to notice that you're going to have some parts that are sticking up those parts will lie down flat you just need to top them and move them into the position that you want them in that dampness is going to help you just by tapping them down and moving that fabric ever so slightly you're going to be able to get this panel to lie flat an option is to put a little bit of starch on so I'm going to spray it with spray starch well this is still damp you can also use a starch alternative when that starch dries and the fabric dries it'll be just like you've pressed it just keep tapping those pieces down until they go flat now if this has been a surface that you can't iron on you're going to have to let this air dry and this is a project I like to lay out at night and let it dry overnight and then in the morning I can work on it you can do the same thing on an ironing board but your ironing board is going to have to be one of those large boards so this can all lay flat and the only difference is we get to pin the edges I'm still going to be able to pull and push the fabric so that it follows a straight edge but I'll be able to just put a couple of pins in to hold it into the position I want and then I'm going to be able to work my way all the way around the fabric should not be pulling on the pins the pins are just holding it in place once you have this all straightened we're going to be able to iron it dry because this is already damp we're not going to need steam and we do not want to move this way because we're just going to stretch that fabric again we want the fabric to go flat so put the iron down and hold it for a second and lift up and as you do that you're going to dry that fabric and you're going to put it back into the spot that you want it in and it's just a matter of pressing up and down until the fabric is dry it's important to let this fabric cool down after you've pressed it the reason is is as fabric is warm it's easy to stretch it again we've already taken care of the stretching we don't want to stretch it all over again so let this fabric cool down and then we're going to be able to remove it take out the pins and you're going to be ready to use that panel we now have that panel nice and straight the key is washing it first so we do get out some of the sizing and it relaxes those fibers and if you can wash it and do it right away then you don't have to make a dip because it's already dead you could do it with the iron or just let it dry overnight and when you're finished ready to use that it's going to be perfectly square because you've made it square next video let's take that panel and turn it into the advent calendar and thank you for joining me today on so very easy feel free to subscribe and as always come on back let's see what we're sewing next time in the sewing room bye for now

Channel: SewVeryEasy

Views: 28,208

Rating: 4.9179735 out of 5

Keywords: fabric, quilting, quilt, sew, sewing, how to, advice, laura, coia, sew very easy, diy, do it yourself, Do It Yourself (Website Category), Sewing Machine (Product Category), free, craft, crafts, crafting, learn, education, educational, teach, teaching, machine, cutting tools, rotary cutter, cutting mat, fabric sissors, Bernina, machines, thread

Id: gDR4xYT_FCE

Length: 9min 7sec (547 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 08 2018