HOW to: 15 minute fabric

FREE PIECED FABRIC MAKING

 OK players!  Got your bin of scraps?  

Here's a step by step of 15 minutes of play... 

Put those strips of fabric away and dig out all your little bits... 

This will be 15 minutes of sewing... 

They go together quickly, Don't think, just sew!

I have a box under my sewing table that I put all my itty bits in that I save for making fabric.

Grab a handful of various sized scraps.

Sew one on, press open. This is a good place to add in angles.  

Is it looking to straight up and down? Lay your next piece on at an angle....

You don't have to line up your seams.

 I stitched a piece on at an angle, 

now trim off the bit that sticks out...

press it open.
Always press your pieces as you sew them on,
this will keep your allowances smooth and flat on the back.

 Keep adding bits... at odd angles, you do NOT need to follow your fabric edge when you do this. THINK ANGLES at all times... sew it on, trim off the bit that sticks out...

Keep adding around and trim off pieces that stick out. SAVE the BITS 

and add them in other places or use to start a new block.

 Working on any edge that you can add to, keep adding bits and pieces to your made fabric.

I am NOT focused on making a SQUARE, I am focused on making a usable piece of FABRIC.

Once you have a piece about 7", lay your ruler over the fabric and cut your shape. 

Here I just followed the size of my ruler. Makes for easy cutting!

 At 15 minutes, I have on my ironing board, This fun block to play with.

When you cut out your squares, try to cut the blocks that will give you the most angles.  

Save the bits you have cut off to start your next 15 minute fabric process...

If your edges get to Curvy or crazy, just trim them to a straight edge. Just don't focus on making them square. You may find you are working with a pentagon or hexagon shape or some 

unrecognizable shape... just keep adding where you can. 

If you find your piece, as you practice, does not lay flat, then cut off the wavy bit. 

Once you cut that wavy part off, you will find "THAT wavy SCRAP" will lay flat after 

you cut it off. Save it and use it on your next block.

You can continue adding to your blocks with made pieces and make even bigger blocks these blocks below are 13 inches square.  Often times, I had 4 bits of made fabric that I pieced together...

 See if you can figure out where I sewn the pieces together.

this one above started with the lower right hand section, I squared it off into 

a pentagon shape then added the top strip, then the LEFT long strip.

 Use strips of made fabric... You can make strips of fabric and join them around 

a funky shaped piece of made fabric... Can you see how this block came together?

This last one, I had two large pieces of made fabric, and one strip. 

I cut them on curves and joined them together, 

then made one more strip of fabric to go across the top...

The more angles you use the more interesting your block will get...

and it you've made something that you can then try a new idea with!

Sometimes you find a piece that is just so perfect and you don't want  to cut it down...

that is were your Y seams come in... or rather, PIVOT points...

If you think of Y seams as pivot point it makes them seem less scary...

And it's far better to try Y seams here then on some big fancy project...

See where the fabric leads you... It's a good way to practice your sewing techniques 

that you may otherwise avoid...

or not!  Like I said, CUT IT OFF, and add something else...  

That's what your scissors are for!

:-)

Have a go... Hope this helps.