Making the Most of Print Fabrics Using See-Through Templates

December 18, 2024

Hi!

Today I wanted to share this article with you again, on using see-through templates to help you make the most of your fabric prints in certain projects.  I love doing this with English Paper Pieced projects (and you’ll find a pattern and how I do it if you go back to this previous post – https://blog.onlinequiltmagazine.com/2024/11/05/fussy-cut-christmas-table-runner/ ), but you can make use of this technique with pieced quilts too, and sometimes just taking care with this extra step can take a quilt block from ordinary to one with “Wow”.

This article was from several years ago, and was written by Candy Hamilton.

 

Making the Most of Print Fabrics Using See-Through Templates

In these times of speedy sewing techniques and quilts made in a day, it is inspiring to see some quilt makers choose their fabric carefully with an eye toward making the most of beautiful prints.

The process is not fast (each patch must be marked and cut individually), but the result is a quilt rich with elegance and splendid in detail. Happily, quilt makers usually live long enough to see the results of their efforts.

This style of fabric usage relies on two ingredients: fabric that has a repeated design that can be isolated, and see-through templates that allow the fabric design to be placed precisely.

Fabric manufacturers are currently doing a good job of providing quilt makers with excellent fabrics: prints large and small, stripes and border prints galore.

There are four principal ways to use repeat design fabric and see-through templates to enhance pieced quilt patterns.
These techniques are all closely related.

1. Position the fabric’s design motifs identically in repeating patches used in a block or segment.
2. Piece selected block patches from smaller patches in which design motifs have been positioned.
3. Use border prints or stripes for repeating patches.
4. Piece selected block patches from smaller patches in which a design motif and a border stripe have been positioned (a combination of numbers 2 and 3).

Estimating Yardage
As you can guess, yardage amounts required for these techniques will be greater than that for conventional fabric use where shared cutting lines allow little leftover fabric. With careful cutting, however, unused areas of fabric can be saved and used in other ways.

When selecting fabric, open it up to see how many repeats there are per yard (or across the fabric’s width); then judge the correct amount to purchase depending on the number of motifs you will need. You can see the fabric repeats in the image below.

(Image from: https://indigoandluxe.com/understanding-fabric-pattern-repeats-for-curtains/ )

About Grain Lines
When positioning of fabric design is the primary consideration in placement of templates, grain lines become a moot point. You might end up with more bias edges than you would like on the outer edges of the block. But patches will not stretch out of shape by themselves, and careful pressing will prevent most problems.

If the grain line on the outer edge of the block is not straight, machine stitch the outside block edge seam line for stability.

 

Marking Patches
To see how the fabric’s prints will work in the pieced block without wasting material, you can make photocopies of your chosen fabrics and work with them in planning. Dark fabrics should be photocopied on the “light” machine setting for the design to show. Any fabrics that do not photocopy well can be traced for experimentation.

After determining how you want to position your see-through template to achieve the desired effect, trace enough of the fabric’s design on the template to ensure exact alignment for all patches. Patches for hand piecing are marked on the wrong side of the fabric using a template without seam allowances.

You might want to experiment with placing the see-through template on the right side of the fabric to find the best position, then find that placement on the back side and proceed to mark all patches. If the fabric print does not show on the back of the fabric, mark and cut patches as for machine piecing (explained below), then turn patches over and mark seam lines on the wrong side using a template without seam allowances added.

Whether you use undecorated pieces or embroidered patches, for machine piecing they are marked on the right side of the fabric using a template with seam allowances added. Mark the seam line on the template so that you can see the exact portion of the fabric print that will show after piecing.

The placement lines marked on the see-through template will allow all patches to be cut with the fabric motifs placed the same way.

If all patches for one pattern piece are cut identically, the fabric design will usually match at the seam lines. To be on the safe side, though, use pins to secure the seam lines at critical matching points.

A willingness to rip out any imperfect seams and re-sew will give you the opportunity for perfect results.

It is certainly not necessary (perhaps not even desirable) to cut every patch with the fabric design placed in a particular way. Even the High Gothic stone cutters left areas uncarved; the plain areas give the eye a rest.

This EPP example is from https://blog.bernina.com/en/2019/08/16284/  and shows the need for plain fabric pieces – the yellow and blue triangles make this design, and serve to really highlight the fussy cut pieces in the rest of the design.

Many quilting fabrics do not have design motifs that can be isolated; that spontaneity is what gives many quilts their charm. Besides, you may want to quickly cut and piece some patches to vary the pace and keep the project moving along. It is always acceptable to combine techniques as best suits the quilt and the quilt maker.

The process of playing with see-through templates is a cumulative one; the more you try it, the more possibilities you will discover. And, many fabrics today offer a multitude of arrangements of motifs and borders just by changing the position of the template.

The technique is slower than many others we enjoy today, and perhaps a pillow would be a good project to begin with. The results are so pleasing, though, that the extra time and effort will be most worthwhile.

Take some time over this holiday season to have a play with these techniques using see-through templates.  When you’re tidying your sewing room in preparation for the New Year, keep an eye out for fun fabric with several repeats, and then get busy playing with it and see just what you can come up with!

Enjoy!