When the rotary cutter and rulers all but eliminated the inaccuracies that a pencil lead caused, the only thing that a piece quilter needed to learn was how the rotary cutter’s ruler is used, or placed on the fabric. The placement inaccuracies of the ruler dictates where the accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance line is. Typically lining up the edge of your fabric with the right side of your presser foot is a good guide for keeping your seam allowance consistent. Some newer sewing machines come with a specific ¼″ quilter’s foot with a seam allowance marked by the edge of the presser foot being ¼″ away from the needle. On the right you can see that the seam lies just slightly – maybe only a thread’s width – inside the ¼″ line. This, my friends, is a scant ¼″. Related tutorial: How to sew thin leather easily with a regular sewing machine Can you use a magnetic seam guide on a computerized sewing machine? This laser seam guide is very useful for quilting. Let me show you how to stitch half-square triangles very fast using the laser guide. I am going to use my ¼ in seam allowances presser foot.

With this Seam Guide Ruler you can set your stitches accurately on any sewing machine. With the free Magnetic Seam Guide you can easily keep that exact distance when sewing.In fact, it’s not really so easy and you may have a problem doing that, especially if you like to sew fast. I would avoid a scant ¼″ if you’re sewing with flannel or other loosely woven fabric that might fray.

If you need to change your sewing machine’s needle for a new project but think your old needle is still good, you can use a needle sorting pincushion to keep it in a safe place. I like the idea because the little boxes are labeled so you can easily see what type of needles you are storing. I recently saw an ITH embroidery pattern for a needle parking pincushion that is basically the same thing. I don’t typically save my sewing machine needles because I like to know I am using a fresh one, but I see that this Madam Sew product has merit. The laser can help to sew zippers. Just align the laser with the zipper tape and stitch. DIY seam guides Is perfect piecing your thing? Do you want more accurate seams than your sewing machines needle plate markings are able to give? With this device, it’s easy to control the width of the allowances when sewing on a sewing machine. This is how it looks, there is a strong magnet under the metal case.That’s what it looks like. It has two plastic pieces and a small square ruler with grid lines and small holes for a needle. Piecing with a Scant quarter-inch seam allowance can make a huge difference in the accuracy and appearance of your finished quilt. Here’s what it is and why it matters.

For topstitching, I like to use special presser feet and I wrote about them in my other tutorial “How to sew straight”. I was taught the reason for a scant has to do with how sharp the pencil lead is. Meaning, keeping the lead sharp. A dull lead makes a wider line, and you will have to use guess work to decide where the needle is placed on the line. That guess work is scant. Do you like to sew? What is the thing you struggle with the most?I asked my readers and by far the most common response was this – how to sew a straight line? How to keep a stitching line straight? Of course, for these purposeswe can use a sewing machine throat plate – it usually has some kind of a seam guide. Why would we need something else? See – there are 5/8″ seam allowances,⅜” seam allowances, etc. Even the bobbin case cover has some marks on it. My Janome machine has the marking in millimeters also. So all you have to do is to keep the fabric edges aligned with the markings. I guess you used this seam allowance guide on a sewing machine many times.In the middle, the seam is exactly ¼″ away from the drawn line. It’s an accurate ¼″ seam allowance. During sewing, run the edge of the fabric exactly along the seam guide and you will get a perfectly straight stitching line. But I don’t need to use the template always. If I need to make very wide seam allowances I just put the seam guide at the distance I want. But these seam guides have to be placed exactly parallel to the presser foot. So I make some marks on my sewing machine for easy placement. Why is this guide called 6-in-1?