Easy Cutting Tips for English Paper Piecing
I wanted to share with you a few easy tips I use for cutting my fabrics to English Paper Piece. On my first EPP project I had acrylic templates making it easy to cut the fabric shapes, this time around I don’t have cutting templates and my first block was a bit messy and wasted more fabric than I like to.
For this project I am using the Clover Rotary Cutter (28mm), a cutting mat and a couple of my small rulers. For these hexagons I needed six so I folded my fabric in half and placed three on top with enough space between for each to have a scant 1/4 seam allowance. Using a ruler I cut just above the papers to make a rectangle, then cut between each shape to make three stacks of squares.
Since the Liberty Lawn fabric I am using is so thin, I placed all the six squares in a stack and using my ruler and cutter, cut around the hexagon shape. So easy!
The rotary cutter from Clover rolls just as smooth and safely as their 45 mm size which I use for all my cutting. My favorite part is the way the button pulls towards me to push the blade out. With some other ones I had used the button pushed away from me which was a more natural movement for my hand and therefore I was constantly flipping my blade out on accident and having close calls with my fingers!
These diamond shapes were super quick to cut by placing them in a row on a slight angle. Another thing about the Clover Rotary Cutter is that the refill blades come on little trays so you never have to touch the fresh blade which always freaked me out. Bonus!
With all my fabrics cut out, I clip them together with their papers using Wonder Clips until I am ready to glue baste and stitch them up. I think all these bitty pieces took about a half hour total to prep which was much quicker than my first try.
My block is almost finished now and I’ll be ready to prep another soon, I like to work one block at a time so I can make changes to my fabrics and placement as I go, leaving room for inspiration to strike. This block is one part of a larger quilt for an upcoming sew along with Ava and Neve and Duckadilly Fabrics, be sure to keep an eye out for more information and give English Paper Piecing a try. What sewing tools make your work go smoother?
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