I don’t know about you, but cutting fabric is one of my least favorite parts about sewing. I love having a design idea in my head and I LOVE sewing it together, but the cutting……not so much.
I was reading my most recent issue of “Sew News” magazine and they had a great idea that I thought I would share with all of you. Typically when you are working with a pattern, you will pin it to your fabric and then cut it out. Well, their tip was to use washers (like the kind your find in the hardware store) to weight-down the pattern pieces. Genius, I say!! Why didn’t I think of this?! This helps to stabilize the pattern pieces so that they don’t move during cutting.
So now I simply weight down my patterns onto my fabric and use my rotary cutter to cut them out. And if you don’t use a rotary cutter to cut your patterns, you must! As painful as I find cutting patterns to be, it makes it go 10x’s faster.
The next time you are sewing from a pattern or even if you are trying to simply trace something, grab some washers………it is a seriously good thing!!
Lindsay Wilkes is the owner and designer behind The Cottage Mama. She creates timeless, vintage inspired sewing patterns for children’s clothes. She is also a fabric designer for Riley Black Designers / Penny Rose Fabrics, author of the book ‘Sew Classic Clothes for Girls’ and can be seen teaching nationwide and online in her video series ‘Lessons with Lindsay’ sponsored by Baby Lock Sewing and Embroidery machines.
Okay, this is genius! I’m sooooo doing it. I HATE pinning!!!! Thank you for this tip!
I totally could have used those while tracing the patterns out of Carefree Clothing for Girls. My hubby-honey might have some washers…
Great idea! Looks like a time-saver and I’ll be raiding my hubby’s shop soon 🙂 I shared your idea on my blog here. Thanks!
http://mamalusco.blogspot.com/2010/04/simple-pattern-weights.html
How do you cut patterns with a rotary cutter if its not all straigh edges if that makes sense at all?
Thanks!
Kellie
brilliant! i love this! i hated my rotary cutter bc of all the shifting but if I use weights i bet it will be super easy! great tip!
Thanks for this tip. The other day I tried securing my pattern pieces with a tiny bit of painters tape and it worked like a charm. I was able to use my ruler and rottary cutter that way without any problems.
I cover these little weights with cutesy details. This past week I made a Raggedy Anne set to sell in my Etsy shop! I already have apple pattern weights in my shop. Love them! They are so useful for us who sew with large patterns!