How to Size and Sew Fabrics Together for a Quilt

One of the most fun parts of making a quilt is deciding how all the pieces of fabric can work together to make a beautiful, useful creation. When sizing a quilt, keep in mind that any pieces you cut need to have room for seam allowance, or be 1/4 to 5/8 inch bigger all the way around than you want the finished pieces. Besides patchwork pieces, a quilt can also have borders of any size around the edges. These can help highlight the design, and provide some “fudge” room in case you need to make the quilt slightly larger or smaller than expected.

Things You'll Need

• fabric
• scissors
• straight pins
• sewing machine
• thread
• iron
• batting
• quilt binding

Instructions

Size and Cut the Quilt Pieces

1. Decide how large you want the quilt. Batting often comes in standard sizes (such as crib, twin, full, queen or king sizes), so you can choose the batting first and use it as a guide.

2. Choose a quilt design based on the look you want to achieve or the fabric you have available. Simple designs, such as squares, are the easiest to measure and sew.

3. Calculate what size pieces you want to use and how many pieces you’ll need. For example, to make a 30 x 36 inch crib size quilt using 6 inch squares, you’ll need 5 squares across and 6 squares down, for a total of 30 squares.

4. Add seam allowance to the size of each piece. For example, to make a quilt of 6 inch squares using 1/4 inch seam allowance, make each square 6 1/2 inches.

5. Cut the pieces of fabric in the size and quantity you need.

Sew the Quilt Pieces Together

1. Lay out the quilt pieces in the design you want.

2. Take two of the pieces that are next to each other and place them right sides together.

3. Stitch along the edge of the pieces using the seam allowance you’ve chosen.

4. Press the seam flat. (If you are using a light fabric and a dark fabric, press the seam toward the dark fabric.)

5. Place the next piece of fabric in the row right sides together with the unsewn edge.

6. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for all the pieces in the row. Sew all the other rows together the same way.

7. Place 2 rows right sides together and stitch them together using the seam allowance you’ve chosen. Press the seam flat.

8. Sew all the rows together the same way.

Sew the Quilt Together

1. Hold the fabric up to the batting. If the fabric is too small, consider adding a border or another row or column of pieces. If the fabric is too large, trim the edges.

2. Make the back of the quilt the same way as the front, or use a single piece of fabric.

3. Lay the back of the quilt wrong side up and place the batting on top of it. Place the quilt top right side up on the batting.

4. Smooth out both fabrics and pin them together.

5. Quilt all the layers together.

6. Finish the quilt by sewing a binding around the edges, following the directions on the quilt binding package.

Tips & Warnings

• To make the design more interesting but still easy to size and sew, you can use triangles of contrasting fabrics to make squares. For example, to make 6 1/2 inch squares out of triangles, cut triangles that are 7 inches along the short sides. Place 2 triangles right sides together and stitch along the long, diagonal edge using 1/4 seam allowance.. Open the triangles up into a square and press the seam flat.

• Use caution when working with scissors, pins, irons and sewing machines.