Sewing Tips

Thread Den suggests a fat quarter as the fabric requirement for the week 1 workshop in our Sewing Basics for Beginners Course. So, what is that and what does that mean?

A fat quarter is a pre-cut piece of fabric especially popular with quilters. It is an economical way to purchase small fabric requirements that have become standardised. Most fabric stores that cater to quilters will have a wide range of fat quarters available either in bundles of complementary colours and designs or sold individually.

A fat quarter is usually:

• 50cm x 50cm square (approximately)
• 100% cotton plain weave fabric
• Cut on the straight grain and including the selvedge on one side of the square

A fat quarter is cut by; first cutting half a metre of quilting fabric off the bolt (producing a rectangle), then cutting that directly in half (achieving a square).

The size of the square produced is not exact because:

• In the USA the first cut is half a yard (45cm) not half a metre (50cm)
• The width of a bolt of fabric varies

Image from The Fabric Fox UK.

For best results, wash and press your fabric before class. You should launder your fabric exactly how you plan to wash and care for your finished garment.

Fabric should be pre-washed to pre-shrink, to remove the chemicals from the manufacturing process and wash out any dirt. Have you noticed how much softer your fabrics can feel after washing? That is due to sizing. Applying a sizing agent (a bit like starch) improves the strength and helps the fabric resist the mechanical stress applied through the manufacturing process.

Most fabrics from natural fibres shrink when you wash them. Cotton fabrics often shrink around 5%, however, shrinkage up to 10% is not uncommon.

Super quick and in some pics, here are our top bobbin threading tips:

Avoid layering up threads on your bobbins. When you get to the end of the outer thread (white in our picture), a knot can easily be created as the needle thread tries to pick up the end of the white thread and the beginning of the yellow thread all at once.

Don’t leave a long thread tail after loading up your bobbin. Each time the machine rotates the needle thread around the bobbin, it will try to pick up both the working end and the tail end of the thread. Instead, snip off the tail thread close to the bobbin.

The thread in our picture isn’t neat, the threads crisis cross each other which will encourage skipped stitches. Double-check your manual to ensure you are threading up correctly to perfectly fill a bobbin with thread.

If your thread feels squishy on the bobbin or you can easily separate threads like in our picture, you will likely be missing a tension guide when threading your bobbin.

If you are following all the guides on your machine and pulling the thread into the bobbin thread tension guide you should have a good-looking bobbin, ready for a great session of sewing!

These are the top tips for cutting out your fabric that we share when you join a sewing workshop at Thread Den. Doing a great job of cutting out all your pattern pieces before you even start sewing will help the rest of your project go smoothly.

Quick tip:

Make it easier to thread your machine needle; snip your thread on an angle to give it a point and always ensure your needle is in its highest position as you thread it. Before you know it, your fingers will remember exactly where to go.