Sewing Curves

Many fun quilt patterns are made up of curved pieces. While many quilters shy away from piecing curves because it can be more difficult than straight line piecing, Toby Lischko demonstrates expert tips for sewing curves that lay flat and smooth.

Sewing Curves: The Step-by-step Technique

One of the first steps in sewing curved seams in a quilt pattern is cutting out the pieces. While other quilt pattern pieces can be cut out using a standard rotary cutter and ruler, curved pieces generally require a pattern piece or template. Toby shares one of her quilt patterns that she designed that uses curved pieces and requires a template in order to cut out the fabric. She shows what the templates look like and explains how to use them- including helpful cutting and measurement techniques when using templates to cut pieces, including using small amounts of tape on the wrong side of the template to hold it in place and using a smaller rotary cutter to more easily cut along the curved edges.

After all of the pieces have been cut out, Toby then shows how to sew a curve. She explains what her techniques are in terms of pinning the pieces together to ensure that they are aligned before stitching. She also explains why she puts the pins in going in a certain direction to ensure that she maintains her accurate ¼” seam allowance. Toby then demonstrates how to press the curved seam in order to make it lay flat and smooth. Depending on how curved the pieces are, you may need to press it in sections to make sure that wrinkles are not being pressed into the block. After stitching each section, Toby then demonstrates how to sew the final block together. Sewing curves can be a fun way to add additional interest to a final quilt, especially if it is combined into a quilt pattern with additional artistic quilting elements in terms of pieces and quilting curves.