Template Piecing

Template piecing is a fabric cutting technique that uses either paper templates or plastic templates for cutting the pieces needed for your quilt project. Using templates for me was at first baffling, then frustrating and now I appreciate the accuracy and ease of making quilts with pieces other than the basic square, rectangle and 45° triangles.


The basic steps to using paper templates for cutting fabric are...

1. Cut template to size with ¼ inch seam allowance included.
2. Place template on fabric, line up ruler to cut on finished template line. If you match the ¼ inch mark on ruler to finished piece line on template, your accuracy won't be reduced by all the tiny slivers cut off the paper template.

The tip that changed the way I thought of template piecing is to trim the template and then the fabric pieces to line up when matched together to sew.

To do this, take 2 template pieces as if to sew them with points and finished piece lines matched. Use a light box or bright window to view them easier. Then trim the template piece that sticks out past the other template piece. Make the same trim to the actual fabric pieces, and when you're ready to sew, line the edges up and they'll fit perfectly. Well almost perfectly anyways.

This method is much easier than marking the ¼ inch lines on all the fabric pieces and trying to match them up for sewing. Go ahead and work on those template piecing projects with more confidence.

Happy Quilting,
Jeanne