E. P. P. – basting tutorial

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I am making La Passacaglia quilts which was my summer carry on project and is now winter evening hand sewing project. Also it’s a very long term one with no particular dead line in my mind. I have made three large rosettes so far and now starting to make smaller ones to connect them.

I am not going to do fussy cuts because I can’t bare the pain but playing with colours and shapes. All above three are same blocks with different fabric placement and I hope I can make interesting shapes.
They are made by English paper piecing method which means paper templates are sewn on the back of fabric as you know. I know some people use glue, freezer paper or some other things but I took traditional way because I don’t stock basting glue in my shop or can’t get one from nearby shops and it is much more straight forward to me.
I printed patterns on a paper as normal and stapled it onto 4-5 sheets of paper which we printed wrong and going to bin anyway. And then sewed it on my machine without thread to copy the pattern that means punched holes were copying the pattern to all the layers of paper. And then cut them into pieces while still sheets of paper holding together.  Does my English make sense?
 
This is how I baste templates to the fabric.
You need fabric cut in shape, templates, cheep thread and a Wonder clip. In Japan, we use specially made basting thread but since there isn’t such a thing in Ireland, I am using this very old fragile thread which is no use anyway. I use nice thin sewing needles for basting which is not basting needle because I don’t own one. My Wonder clips from Clover are grey just because I want to be different.
Place a template on the wrong side of fabric with 1/4″seam allowance and hold it with a wonder clip. I used to use flat pins for this but they tear the template and resulted it moving around. Wonder clips keep it in place nicely.

Fold the first side. I start with straight grain side if possible. Finger press well and baste.

On the second side, I place my needle on the edge of template. For the photo purpose, I am only using left hand but I need right one too for this and next step.

Fold the seam allowance while the needle is still in place. Remove the needle and finger press well and baste.

I keep a Wonder clip as long as I can but after second fold is secured I don’t think template move any more.
And finished!

Do stitch through over lapping corner but you can make long stitches other places. I don’t do back stitch on the corner but I think that is personal preference.
I think repetitive work is good because it makes you good at it and faster and easier. You will become more aware of slight different ones from others and understand how it happened. You will learn something.
Now I am back to more basting.