Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Twirling Seams

First, I must say -- I'm no expert! But this is the way I learned how to twirl a seam. It only takes two seconds to do it, and I'm happy with the way my center seams lay flat. Secondly, forgive the photography!!



Sew the two half square triangles with a quarter inch seam.



Press to the dark, or to the same side on both blocks. My iron wasn't hot yet, so the pressing isn't the best here.



Now you have opposing seams.



Nest seams and pin again. Then sew using a quarter inch seam.

This is what it looks like before you start twirling.



I darkened two seams on here with a pencil so you can tell, hopefully, the one that's important to remove. Not the slanted line on the left. You will be popping the thread on the vertical seam on the right.



Slide your seam ripper under the stitch that's closest to the long horizontal seam. For me there are usually three stitches in that quarter inch space. By cutting just the one closest to the long seam, the other two stitches pop out on their own. Flip it over and do the same thing on the other side. Note: I keep a seam ripper on my ironing board for just this thing. It really takes like two seconds to do this.



Turn the block over and open the seams. You'll see how it goes all by itself. The right side goes down, the left side goes up. The center of the seam is twirled.



Here I just press the center twirl with my finger to hold it open. (And I desperately need a manicure!) Then I place the iron on top of the whole block, or just the center if it's a large block.



Flip the block over and press with the iron on the right side. Ta-Dah!! A twirled center that lays flat.

I hope this helps. I am really lousy at explaining things. In case I confused folks, here's a blog that Judy did on the subject.

17 comments:

Carol said...

That was perfect...your description and pictures were great..I've never been able to figure out which stitches to clip. Thanks!

Cindy said...

I understood exactly what you meant, especially with the pic of pencil marks. This is great info. Thanks sew much.

jlk said...

Thank you! That was a great explanation.

jenniebeth said...

Thank you vicky!
(and I love the nail polish color!)

jenniebeth

pdudgeon said...

ahhhh! now i got it.

yep, this will definitely work better than using a hammer, lol.
thanks again, Vicky.

(going to pop and press my seams)

Julia said...

Thanks so very much for sharing this, Vicky! It was just what I needed to understand how to do this! Now I can go put my hammer away! lol

Anonymous said...

What a great tutorial, Vicky! I used to know how to do the twirl but I forgot. So thanks for the update! BTW, your nails look beautiful - I am the one that desperately needs a manicure.
Hugs, LadyBaltimore

Miss Jean said...

This is so much better than the way I do it. I would open the block up and then squish it and try to figure out which one to open. I love the little itsy bitsy pinwheels. Don't know why, but I love em.

Anonymous said...

Vicky, your tutorial was great. The part about pressing everything to the dark is the key point. I always thought it would be to bulky, but the nesting give you your spot on points.
Mary

Holly said...

Great job with the tutorial and with your perfectly matching points!

julieQ said...

Your block is so perfect! Thank you for the tutorial.

Nan said...

Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial! I have heard of this, but have never seen it done.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a great explanation. With the pictures, it made it so easy to understand.

rachel griffith said...

oh wow.
thanks SO much!!!
i will without a doubt be using this!!!

*karendianne. said...

Excellent tutorial!

Kim said...

Uh oh...I can see that I did mine all wrong. Well, now I now better, lol...Julia used a hammer? ROFL, for what? Thanks for showing us how to do this. Very nicely done!

Jean said...

Jean. Thank you!! Working with flannel and your technique was very helpful!!