Video:Quarter Inch Seam Allowance

Transcript:Quarter Inch Seam Allowance

Hi, My name is Linda Warren. I am at Valley Fabrics in Northampton MA. I am going to talk about perfecting you 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Practice Makes Perfect

So to get an accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance, you will need to practice. You will need two pieces of fabric, that are two inches wide, that you've cut with rotary cutters to make sure they are very accurate, and a sewing machine.

Sew the Two Pieces Together

So you will put your two pieces right sides together like your sewing any two pieces together just pretend you're making a quilt here. Line up edges and sew it on your sewing machine with whatever you normally use for quilting, setup for your 1/4 inch seam allowance.

So basically you're running a test here, so your going to line it up, however you normally line it up, and sew your seam. OK so there's my 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Press Into Pattern

I am going to press into whatever pattern I was doing, and then I am going measure it, from edge to edge across where I just sewed.

Seam Allowance Formula

The formula is the size of your starting strips, so it's two inches plus two inches minus half an inch for the seam allowances two 1/4 inch seam allowances. Two plus two is four minus half is three and a half, should measure three and a half. Mine measures over three and a half, so I wasn't accurate enough, if I am really trying to perfect my 1/4 inch, I am going to do it again. So I take another one and I adjust what I did on here. I am going to change the edge, I am going to move it over, a little further away from the needle. So I get a larger seam allowance, sometimes the markings on a machine aren't accurate or we weren't holding it in the right way, or we weren't using the right foot.

Test Your Accuracy

You can test it, you can just do this little test, I like to do it at the beginning of a project, or if I change my presser foot to something else. I like to do it just to make sure I got my accuracy down. There at exactly three and half inches and that's what I am looking for.

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