How to Cut Thangles

Before the invention of thangles, cutting half-square triangles was a complicated process. If you wanted to sew half-square triangles, you would have to add 7/8-inch to the desired finished square and then cut on the diagonal. With thangles, you only have to cut strips and follow the pattern. This is an incredible convenience for quilters everywhere.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 2 different colored fabric strips
• Thangles
• Sewing machine
• Scissors or rotary cutter

1. Lay your fabric strips with the right sides touching each other. Pin the thangles guide on top of the strips. Make sure your pin is only on the solid lines printed on the thangles.

2. Sew the two pieces of fabric and the thangles guide together along the dotted line that's conveniently printed on the thangles.

3. Cut along all solid lines. For the longer edges, you may want to use a quilting mat and ruler, but for the smaller lines, you can do it freehand.

4. Open each square and iron it flat. You'll see that each quilt square is now made of two triangles. Tear away the thangles paper.

5. Use your half-triangle squares as part of your quilt pattern. Many popular patterns use this shape.

Tips & Warnings

• If you must cut several half-triangle squares for your quilt, you can go much faster if you do each step in batches rather than all steps for each piece. For example, start by pinning the thangles to all your fabric strips. Then sew all of the thangles to the strips. Then cut and iron them all.
• Don't use regular printer paper instead of thangles. Thangles use a special thin paper with heat resistant ink. This makes it easy to tear off after sewing and prevents the ink from bleeding onto your fabric when ironing.