jstitch

OK, sew this seam with the quarter circle on the bottom and the fan unit on top.. you need to be able to manipulate all that fullnes as you sew across the seam..

I also suggest if you have a needle down option on your machine, that you use it now..

If not, just make sure you always stop with the needle in the down position, as you are going to be moving the fabric around a bit...

make sure that the straight edges match when you place it into the machine..
and begin sewing.. stop after about 1/2 inch...

your goal, each time to you stop is to adjust the fullness in the fan ahead and behind the spot where you are going to sew, so that you have a flat space of an inch or so to sew the seam,

Sew a little more and adjust the fullness.. do this as often as necessary to get a nice flat seam..

jstitch

adjusting the fullness as you sew the seam

Do you see how the fullness moves from in the front to the back as you move across the curved seam..?

jstitch

Now you press the curved seam towards the quarter circle...

once again, press, not iron.. you still have some unsew bias edges..

jstitch

OK, now we need to do another accuracy check...

The directions say to turn under 1/4 inch along the top edge of the fan and applique to the background piece. so,

I cut a 12 1/5 inch block of background fabric.. layed my fan in place. and guess what.. it was a tiny bit crooked on the edges..

you can work with the crooked edges, but since there is nothing we need to match to, I chose to move the fan down on the backgroud block until the entire edge on both sides lined up,,, I will trim after it is appliqued in place...

jstitch

I ironed under 1/4 along the upper edge..

then pinned it to the backgroud..

As far as applique, you have many choices..

My choice is to thread baste about a quarter inch from the edge and blind stitch it down.. you can attach lace or other decorative edges before or after you apply the fan to the background.

If you are going to attach lace in the seam line, on top of the background, but under the fan, I would sew the lace to the fan with a 1/4 inch seam.. do this instead of pressing under the 1/4 inch. then when you turn the lace out, the seam will turn under.. pin and applique the fan in place leaving the lace free.

You could top stitch it down along the turned under edge

You could mark the edge with your pattern template and needle turn it under..again I would thread baste it down first...

Once the fan has been attached to the background.. turn the piece over and trim the fan to match the background.. you are done..

Congratulations

mpeters1200

WOWEEE....

I had to go back and read the part about the fullness moving from front to back, but I get it.

I told you this would be a good tute. I know there's more people out there that would benefit than just me.

I did go back and look at all my blades and they will all need to be recut. I will worry about recutting for the plate at a later time. I am concentrating on one block at a time. I'll remark, recut and remake the fan using your help and see what happens. I may have to upload all this to the laptop, then unplug the laptop and take it to the kitchen with me so I can look at the pics as I go.

Judy, thanks so much, you are a lifesaver!!

Melissa

Butterflyspain

Great Tute jstitch, I really like this one.

Elle

butterflywing

okay. here's a lazy girl's question.

i have a collection of blades, all sewn together ( by the way, thanks for saying they won't line up on both sides. i discovered that and already fixed that, but i thought i cut wrong). they have lived here so long they pay rent.

i have the fabric for the quarter circles, maybe already cut (who remembers?).

i have the fabric for the outside corners. NOW...... there must be a way to sew the top edge of the fan to a piece of fabric that's already cut for that purpose. it would look like a corner of a square with a scoop taken out large enough for the top edge of the fan to fit into. all this because i'm too lazy to applique. ALL THIS BECAUSE I'M TOO LAZY TO APPLIQUE!!!

jstitch

Yes, you can piece this together. It will be the same process as pieceing the quarter circle edge to the bottom of the fan..

the only difference, I believe, is that you probably wont need to clip..

so, pin the center of the corner unit to the center of the fan, right sides together.
Pin each edge, and ease between the edge and center pins.. since this is a longer seam you will need a couple more pins,, maybe three in each section.. so 9 pins in all. then sew the 1/4 inch seam as you did on the quarter circle seam only with the fan on the bottom and the corner unit on top..easing the fullness as you work around.. This is actually an easier seam than the quarter circle as it is a gentler curve.

mpeters1200

Judy,

Thanks to your tute, I understood what I was supposed to do. I also had great help from a new friend. I told her about your tute.

I tackled that darn fan today. I posted a pic in it's FINISHED form on my sampler thread.

Thanks again!!

Melissa