Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Tutorial: Curved Bias Quilt Label

Hi! I've been sewing my brains out lately and it's time to catch up!

Here is my new favourite way of making a quilt label. I've used it three times so far and I love the way it looks. Here's how...

Cut a 1" wide strip of your label fabric on the true bias, and long enough to fit your label information plus a little extra on each end. 

Carefully iron it right side up to a scrap of freezer paper on the shiny side. This stabilizes the fabric so it doesn't shift as you write. 

With a Pigma Micron Pen, write your quilt information in the centre of the strip. Write smallish- the edges are getting turned under. The finished label is 1/2" wide.


Now, I run the strip through my handy Clover Bias Maker (1/2" wide finished). If you don't have one, you could just carefully press the edges under, but the Clover Bias Maker is really quick and neat (and super fun!).

Then, with the right side up, gently pull the strip into a curve while you press it with your iron.

Position the curved label in a corner on the back of your quilt, with the ends hanging a bit past the edges of the quilt. Pin and hand appliqué in place. (Just stitch the two long sides; the short ends get caught in the binding.) Trim ends flush with quilt edges.

Attach your binding however you like. For the binding in the photo, I did the first stage of stitching attaching the binding to the back of the quilt, then folded it over and machine finished it from the front...



...and there you have it! A neat, easy and unusual way to label your quilt. I hope you try it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Johanna! I've been looking for a cute non-cheesy way of adding a little label and this is such a great idea! Thank you!
- Rebecca (intro quilt class Jan 2012)
p.s. i've been quilting up a storm since our class

Johanna Masko said...

Awesome, Rebecca! Glad you're hooked on quilting- it was my Master Plan all along. Ha! :-)