CRAZY PIECING TUTORIAL

To be a truly "crazy" piecer, you have to be a little crazy!

Here's a shot of my studio Friday as I was starting to do this project! I've been doing a lot of different things, so EVERYTHING is out, and little Dickens finds the piles of fabric to make a lovely nest!

Crazy piecing starts best with a 5 or 6 sided piece of fabric.

Here I've started with a 5 sided piece. I usually do my crazy piecing on a foundation piece of fabric. Here I'm using some duck cloth. I like it because it's quite firm, so when I get ready to do embroidery or embellishments, I don't worry about using stabilizer.

If you're crazy piecing to make a garment (like my vests), cut out your pattern with muslin, using EXTRA WIDE seam allowances all around. Here I'm just making a couple of rectangular pieces to make a handbag with.

Next, pick 1 edge and lay another piece of fabric over it, right sides together, with straight edges even.

The top piece DOES NOT have to be exactly the length of the bottom edge, just BE SURE it's AS LONG.



Now stitch along the straight edges with a narrow seam allowance.

The seam allowance DOES NOT MATTER! (Hello, Quilters! Did you hear that! ; ) What does matter is that you sew a STRAIGHT line.

When you've finished, flip the new fabric over. Press (or finger press) the seam open.

Now you can put a pin or 2 in to secure your outer edges together if you wish--depends on how big a piece you're working on.




Next flip the foundation piece over and trim off the excess of Fabric 2, even with the edge of your foundation.






Now turn everything right side up again.



Looks good!

This is the basic idea. You keep adding fabrics going around the edges of your original 5 sided piece, then piece around those until your base is covered. Because I use scraps that are oddly shaped, I sometimes draw a straight line with a pencil on my foundation piece to help guide me in sewing the straight edges.


I have tons more photos and wanted to write A LOT more, but formatting photos in Blogger is insane!!! Tutorials need LOTS of pictures and this site is not designed for ease of inserting photos. So this is to be continued...........

Well, I've found Windows Live Writer to help with blogging, so the rest of the tutorial is posted on May 30. Please post your questions here and I'll answer them promptly.