I think that the hardest part of the OBW is cutting the fabric. There are many great videos on this process, but my trepidation ran deep for actually getting my cuts made. I spent much time afraid of making a mistake.
It gave me confidence that I had auditioned my fabric using the One Block Wonder Designer Helper. I knew that would end up with wonderful blocks. I think that the key is not to over think it. I finally took the leap and made the cut.
I want to share some tips that some may find useful beyond finding your repeats in your fabric. (I tore my fabric straight down the middle lengthwise so that I had a strip about 22" in length (North/South) with the width (East West) the repeat (plus some)
- Matching your repeats across 6 layers. Lots of great information out there. I did a little MacGyver trick. I threaded a largish needle with dental floss. I made hanging loops on each end of the fabric near the selvedge (and through a fabric feature) so that I could put my thumbs through and shake my fabric straight. The weight of the fabric ensured that the weight pushed downward on the loop in one place. (Gravity is a wonderful thing). I then made tack points throughout by double using two strands of dental floss knotted on one end (I made about 3 knots on top of each so it would not pull through). With the knotted end on the top, I pushed the needle through the fabric feature I planned to match on each of the 6 layers. I pulled the floss through until the knot sat on top of the first layer. I then cut and knotted flat to the back of the 6th piece. It worked beautifully. Each tack was snug and secure and did not move a hair. The beauty of floss v. pins is that you can cut through them (and you don't stick yourself). I should note that I starched my fabric on both sides very liberally.
- Cutting. I used the standard 3.75" strip width. I did not overthink that. If you don't have a 60 degree ruler, I think it makes sense to get one. Sure you can use your 60 degree line on your regular ruler but you are doing twice as much ruler movement for each cut. Therefore, your productivity and accuracy will suffer relative to the ease of having the right ruler for the job. This ruler is one that you will use for many things. (I had a large Clearview 10", I opted to get a smaller ruler for $12.) I used my Martelli 60mm rotary cutter with a fresh blade. It sailed through the cutting.
- Marking straight of grain. When you cut your triangles, there will be one straight edge (top/bottom of strip) and 2 biased edges. If you want to keep your straight of grain edge on the outside (and I wanted to), when you cut your triangles, place a fabric clip on the top right edge of the point (and the bottom is straight of grain) or at the straight of grain edge (so the top is your middle). (Yes, you can tug and find straight of grain, but do you really one to stretch it?). I have a terrible time with triangles; and I'm not a confident sewer of them without aides.
- Sewing: I laid out each of my hexagon pieces in a full pie with the slices in the middle. I laid out about 5 at a time. I picked up two pairs from each pie and sewed them together. I do not plan to open my seams but spin them. If you spin your seams, you need to spin them all in the same direction on each piece. Otherwise, adjoining pieces will not lay in opposite direction. I pressed and pushed all of my seams to the left with the center in front of me. I DID NOT sew the centers together. If you do, you cannot do straight line row sewing. On my practice blocks I noted that I had one with seams going one way and another the other...no way they were going to fit nicely. I find that spinned seams lie flat. I'm too lazy to press seams open when I feel I get a good result with spinned seams. My blocks lay very flat.
- Thread: I used Wonderfil Decobo 80wt cottonized thread. With all the seams, a light weight thread with the same strength as a 50 wt keeps bulk down.
This techniques is lots of fun. I'm glad that I got over the hurdle of getting my fabric prepared, made practice blocks, got the spin correct and mostly got my pieces in the right order. I did have to unpick two triangles. I stack the halves together. I'm working my way through.
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