quilterj

what size stitch length do you use for strips when cutting them after sewing? my class teacher said to use 20. if i were to use 22 would that be to loose?

ShellyQ

You mean like for strip piecing? I use a smaller stitch than normal, because if you're stitches are too big your sewing can unravel where it is cut, so you have to go back and resew all you endings together, a real pain in the butt :lol:

quilterj

i am sewing strips together. my teacher told me to put the st. lenght on 20 or my machine shows 2.0. anyway she that is a tighter st than the 2.2 i was going to use. then we are going to cut the strips to make a bergello. so no matter if i put the tension on 3 or 4 and used 20 and alternatered my strips or not i still have a bow or curve in it. i am now taking out some of my strips to start over but want to know if i go with the 22 is the stitch going to be too loose as my teacher feels it may be. hope i explained this well enough. i am about to pull my hair out. my next class is this next weekend and i don't even have one set of 10 strips sewn together. hope someone can help me.

thimblebug6000

One thing that helps me when I'm sewing long strips is to just plain slow down. I know it takes longer to get from A to B but it seems to help the strips keep straighter. The other thing I'm wondering, when you cut your strips and opened them out, were they straight? Or did they have a little wow in them already? Sometimes cutting on a fold that is just a little off will throw out your strips as well. As far as stitch length goes, why would you want to lengthen the stitch? For sure as others have mentioned, when you slice your strip strata if the stitching is too loose, you'll have seam ends unravelling. Don't lose hope, we've all been there and that's why we're able to come up with so many maybes :roll:

ShellyQ

Sorry I can't help with exact stitch sizes cause my machine is metric, but I hear your frustration it's so hard when things are not going right. I don't think the stitch size will affect bowing much I think that's more to with the one of the fabrics getting stretched during sewing, Does your machine have adjustable pressure on the foot, sometimes the pressure on the foot will cause the top fabric to stetch more than the bottom, if you are able to loosen the pressure a bit, this might help. Do you have an even feed or walking foot, using that might help too. Just a couple of ideas, I hope something works for you and that you can get back to enjoying your project :-)

Moonpi

The rippling can be avoided by using a walking foot. Long strips are notorious for feeding at different speeds.

quilterj

thanks for your help everyone. it looks like a couple of them maybe a cut a little off. how could i correct that so it doesn't wave or curve?

Barb M

This is what i would do. First, use very small stitches, they don't effect bowing, they stop your quilt from coming undone. I dont usually sew in long rows, because it is very easy to get bowing that way. I usually take 3 or 4 squares from 3 or 4 rows, and sew them together like a 9 patch or 16 patch, then press, then lay on grid and square off any imperfections that have begun. Then take all these big patch blocks, and sew them together in rows. What happens is no matter how hard you try to cut and sew perfect, there is always a little imperfection, and a little3 imperfection in one seam is not much, but when it is multiplied by 3 or 4 seams, it gets worse and worse. Now, because i have never done a bargello, i dont know if you can do it like i suggested....sooo....this is the other option i would do. After sewing each row, do a very light pressing, just up and down with iron. Then lay it out on a grid, and see if there is any bowing. If anything is too small, you can then stretch it a bit with the iron, if there is any bowing, you can then trim it with your rotary cutter and ruler. If you do this with each row, then it will fix any imperfections on each row. I'm sorry about the rows you've already done, the parts that are bowing out, can you re-stitch your seam, and just make your seam slightly larger in the areas you need to, to fix it??? Instead of ripping it out?

quilterj

thank you every one for all your input. i finally got ahold of a friend of mine who helped me. she said that it did have some cut a little off. and like you said barb about resewing with the seams being slightly bigger. she said that between the cutting, and resewing apparently i had also stretched the fabric a little. so wish me luck and i will keep you posted and hopefully post pictures.

Barb M

Oh, hope it works out :)