Drafting scallops tutorial

Sometimes pen and paper is the best and easiest way to design and draft.  I'm sure there's a computer program that could do this for me in a snap.  Or maybe some mathematical equation that looks like an alien wrote it, and it may very well be able to be done in EQ7, but darned if I can figure it out.  So here's what I'll be making.  The outer pink scallop on the Dresden.  You can find templates for it here .  But any Dresden any size will work with this method.

Now run to the kitchen and grab the freezer paper.  Have you notice that on the box is a picture for applique?  

Make sure your piece of freezer paper is 6 or 7 inches larger than your Dresden.  Iron it shiny side down to your ironing surface.  I you don't have a large ironing surface that's OK.  All you need is a large piece of any fabric, iron the freezer paper onto it, don't worry no residue will be left behind.  You can also totally skip this step if you can find another way to make the freezer paper lay flat.

See nice and flat, I leave it stuck in place until I'm finished drawing.  

Center your pressed Dresden on the sheet of freezer paper.  Secure with pins.  My ironing surface is padded so I just poked them down like a pin cushion.

At each seam make a mark that is touching the edge of the fabric.

I put another mark at the top, making a "T"  

Now just connect the dots!  The long line shown below needs to extend 2-3 inches past the mark.   And then the outer dots are connected in a circle.

All connected

Line up a ruler on 1/4 inch line and draw another line inside the first one.  This will make your seam allowance.

At this point it should look like this

Time to make that scallop.  The space between the spokes is 2 inches.  I'm using a Perfect Circle Template, but anything round will work.  Spice jars, can of mushrooms are a couple that might work.  I'm setting the center hole on the template just above the drawn line, ensuring uniform scallops.  If you are using a can or jar you'll need to make some marks on it to keep it uniform.  Or you could measure up on the spokes the height that you want your scallop, then make another ring around your drawing.

If there are gaps its OK, I promise no one will know.

Now lets smooth out that bump.  Using the same template make a "swag" between each bump.

And there you have it!  

Cut the template on the inner circle.  

Here's my original scallop.  I used 3 layers of freezer paper, this gave me a nice stiff base for turning my outside edges under with the iron.  

All that's left to do is pin like crazy and stitch!

~Lea Anne~

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