Sewing in circles Tutorial

This post has been edited for Design Wall Monday over at Judys.  With all the canning going on around here I've not had much time in the Studio.

Its storming here today.  When it storms... really when the wind blows, the electricity tends to go out.  The plan was to freeze some green beans and make bread and butter pickles.  However I wouldn't want to be in the middle of canning and the power go out.  So I took advantage of the situation!  SEWING!  YEAH!

Sewing in circles isn't easy if you don't have the machine attachment.  And dragging out the Embroidery machine and finding the right file online could take hours.  So I'll construct my own circle sewer.  

Using a piece of Templar, but any stiff plastic would work.  I drew a line down the middle and and marked every half inch.

 Then I removed the plate on my sewing machine and lined up the edge of the Templar just enough to cover the feed dog holes. Making a mark at the edge of the plate. Taped it down and turned it over.

 Traced the opening with a marker.  Then cut out that section.  

A thumb tack and the eraser from a mechanical pencil will be inserted in the holes in the Templar.

 At each half inch marking I poked a hole with my sewing machine not threaded.  Can you see the tack sticking through on the left?  I used scotch tape to secure the whole thing to the bed of the machine.

Marked a circle .  Marked the center with a dot. And attached

Just move the tack to make different size circles.  I used a test piece to see how each stitch would stitch out.  Sometimes the circle can distort the stitch.

 The circle on the left had no stabilizer the one on the right did.  It worked much better with the fusible stabilizer.  Just spray the blue markings with water and the hole made by the tack, rubbing the hole while wet  will make it disappear.  Carefully cut out your circle with scissors, I used pinking shears to slow down the fraying. 

The tall one has elastic sewn into it and a vintage lace ribbon.  It turned out poorly because the elastic was to wide and stiff, it was all I had.  Won't make that mistake again.   It was the first one I made, now to tweak that idea.   The short one with cherries has little holes cut with the ribbon threaded through the holes.  And the short one on the right, I just put a rubber band on around it and then covered by tying on the ribbon.  I like the third option best, because the ribbon and rubber band can be removed and the lid cover becomes a doily! 

Until next time "Quilt out of Your Comfort Zone!

Lea

Pin It