Make Time British Sew-along: earning your stripes
- Nicola
- Sep 28
- 3 min read
Welcome to week seven of the Make Time British Sew-along. Before I show you a fun variation of the A Good Yarn block, let me remind you of our autumn sewing schedule: -
18th August - Make Time block with Jo Westfoot - explore foundation paper piecing.
25th August - Tulips, Clouds, Let's Chat, Get Snippy and Book Club blocks with Lou Orth - explore curved piecing, snowball corners and foundation paper piecing.
8th September - Sunrise, Sewing Machine, Friendship Heart and Kitty Cat blocks with Victoria Peat - explore creating dresden fans and foundation paper piecing.
22nd September - Friendship Star, Smell the Roses, A Good Yarn & Bubble Bath blocks, here with me - explore machine piecing, partial seams, strip piecing & simple embroidery in my last post.
6th October - Time for a Cuppa, Thread Spools, Music Soothes the Soul & Walk in Nature blocks with Jo Westfoot - explore foundation paper piecing and applique.
20th October - join me here again for my tips on assembling the quilt.
You can buy the Make Time PDF Pattern Bundle here.
FPP Strip-Piecing Hack
For those of you who've soaked up all of the foundation paper piecing tips from Jo, Lou and Victoria over the past weeks, I have a little treat. I've always preferred traditional piecing over FPP - so I don't have any tips of my own to share - but if you've been eyeing the strip-piecing in A Good Yarn with some trepidation, I've put together an FPP template to replace steps 7 - 8 & 12 in your pattern. Download it below...
Using Striped Fabrics
As soon as I'd finished designing my yarn block I knew I wanted to try substituting stripy fabric for the strip-pieced portions of the block. This is how I did it...
Referring to your A Good Yarn block pattern, you will omit the units made in steps 7 and 8 a) and b) and replace them with a 3½” wide x 2½” high piece, with the stripes running horizontally, and 3½” wide x 1½” high, with the stripes running vertically, as shown above. In addition you will need to cut 4 1½” squares from the striped fabric.
I chose a text print for my label and a ditsy floral background.
Follow step 8 c) - f) in the pattern to join the striped rectangles together and snowball the corners.
To make the side portions of the label - step 9 in the pattern - we'll be using 1½” striped squares to snowball the corners, which takes a bit of care. When you pin those little squares into place, the stripes need to run in the opposite direction. It's important to 'test' them - folding them back at 45° - to make sure they'll be running in the right direction in the finished block, as shown above.
Bonus Project: knitting bag
We always want our sewalong participants to get the most out of their patterns. As well as using them individually to create cushions, table runners and mini quilts, we wanted to show you how you could take individual elements from the patterns to decorate pouches bag and even clothes (wait until you see what Jo made!).
So what to do with two yarn blocks? Why, make a knitting bag of course! I used Lou's Zip Divide It Basket pattern, using the medium size, but adding 4" to the width and 3" to the height to accommodate my block.
The basket is reinforced with a non woven, fusible interfacing called Decovil I Light by Vlieseline, rather than being quilted, which is how I usually add structure to my bags. As it's flexible and quite squidgy I was really pleased with how it turned out using a pieced front and will definitely try it again.
The worlds smallest and longest-running knitting project now has a home, so perhaps I'll finally finish it!
I'd love to know how you get on with your Make Time blocks. You can leave a comment, below, tag your blocks #britishsewalong on Instagram or come and join the British Sew-a-Row Facebook group. Thanks for your company this past fortnight and look out for Jo's post on the 6th of October!
Until then, make time to do what makes you happy,
Nicola xx
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