Inset Seams Are MORE FUN Than Regular Seams
YES, they are!
Our 300 Inklingo Pieced Hexagons are pretty designs, don’t you think? It has been fun to design them with swatches of Timeless Treasures fabric.
These are even more fun to sew with Inklingo when they have inset seams.
Inklingoists love inset seams. Are you surprised? Let me explain!
An inset seam is required when a piece is stitched into an angle formed by other pieces (red lines, above).
They are sometimes called Y seams.
For insets, we must stop stitching exactly at the seam allowance. We cannot sew edge-to-edge.
Inklingo makes inset seams easier because there are precise crosshairs printed on the fabric. You can see exactly where to start and stop.
If you are machine piecing, learning to sew from crosshair to crosshair takes a bit of practice. (See the video.) It can be fun, but some machine piecers prefer the “normal” method and want to sew edge-to-edge all the time. (That is why inset seams got such a bad name.)
AH HA! When we sew by hand, the “normal” method is to sew from crosshair to crosshair on every seam. That means inset seams are no harder than regular seams when we sew by hand!
And it gets even better!
Thanks to inset seams, I can sew this Pieced Hexagon design with only three threads!
I look for opportunities to turn “regular” seams into inset seams. Yes, I do!
Sewing Sequence – Plan Your Route
When I am hand piecing, I like to plan my route, so I can go from one seam to the next without breaking the thread.
THREE THREADS—1, 2, 3
Isn’t that cool? 19 pieces, 3 threads, 1 great design to impress everyone.
At the end of every seam, I can turn a corner and keep going. You can see how I do it in several of the Inklingo videos on YouTube. (See Grandmother’s Flower Garden, Kaleidoscope Stars, etc.)
Design Your Own Route
The sewing sequence illustrated for this Pieced Hexagon is just one example. There are other good sewing sequences for this design. You cannot make a mistake! You can add the pieces in any order. The more you sew, the better you will get at eliminating starts and stops.
I find it fun to lay the pieces out wrong side up and plan my route so there are fewer stops and starts. The sewing lines and crosshairs printed on the fabric give me confidence. I know I will be happy with the finished block.
Continuous Stitching is Like Chain Piecing
“Continuous stitching” is the hand piecing equivalent of chain piecing by machine.
Sewing continuously with a running stitch gets me into a relaxing, enjoyable rhythm. It makes me feel happy.
See all the advantages of Hand Piecing on the Inklingo website. There is other cool stuff under the Hand Piecing tab, like Why English Paper Piece?
I could sew one seam at a time, but do you see why I consider it an advantage when a piece is stitched into an angle formed by other pieces?
“Continuous stitching” makes me love inset seams.
You can impress your friends with all your insets, but please tell everyone how easy they are with Inklingo.
We have more tips like this to share in the next Wednesday Tute.
Would you like to catch up from the beginning?
- 300 Inklingo Pieced Hexagons
- Wednesday Tute 01 (with video) (free PDF to download)
- Wednesday Tute 02 (also with video)
- Friday bonus – Pieced Hexagons to Color (free PDF to download)
- Wednesday Tute 03
- Pieced Hexagon Poetry
- Wednesday Tute 04 (inset seams)
- Wednesday Tute 05 (finished sizes of the shapes)
- Wednesday Tute 06 (how to count hexagons)
- Wednesday Tute 07 (settings for Pieced Hexagons)
If you can’t wait for next Wednesday, you might like to see me “circling the intersection” for nice, tight, precision matches when 5, 6, 7, 8, or more pieces meet. There are close-up sewing sequences in Part 2 of Kaleidoscope Star on YouTube.
300 PIECED HEXAGON DESIGNS? YES!
Pick a size and choose the ones you like the best!
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See you next Wednesday—if not before. Thanks for visiting.
Linda & Monkey
New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.
Hi Linda, I think you will find the next few Wednesday Tutes will help. I am not going to provide a cutting chart for every one of the 300 Pieced Hexagons in every size, but there will be a few.
Hugs, Linda & Monkey
Good tutorial. Thanks for the sewing sequence info.
I have GOT to find time to get these started – somewhere in my schedule there just has to be time! The tutorials and pictures are making my mouth water!
Keep up the great job, Linda and Monkey!
Blocks are so beautiful!
I love looking at the different blocks but most times it confuses what I need to make the block. Could you say take a block in one size block and say what exactly what to print and where to get it . I am sure there is somewhere you can find this but sometimes I don’t have the time to look. Loved Tildes one page thing she did to print. That got me to try. Linda gerig
Great explanation of one of my favourite things – continuous stitching! It’s fun to figure out a route and then just stitch without having to knot off and break the thread! Once you get into that rhythm of continuous stitching, the blocks almost put themselves together.
good tutorial – this should help a lot that are new to this – love making all these hexies!