U3A Block 5a Stage Three: sewing

Foundation piecing often confuses people because you draw on one side of the foundation material and place your fabric on the reverse then turn over again to sew on the drawn line.
However the usual principles apply such as lining up fabrics right sides together and trying to keep grain lines consistent.
Whilst the method has disadvantages in the extra steps of preparing foundations and reversing them and using extra fabric, it does help even experienced sewers to be very accurate, even when sewing more complex patterns once the preserve of experts.

1. Place patch One on the
REVERSE of foundation and
pin. Turn over and on drawn
side, check that you have
enough seam allowance.

2. Place patch Two right
sides rogether but then turn over
 and sew ALONG THE
DRAWN LINE!
Flip up
and press.






3. Add a second HST in the
same way.

4. Now you probably have too much
seam allowance so  turn back the
foundation and trim back the seam
to 1/4".

5. Trimming gives you a nice neat line on which to
 line up the second goose, right sides together.
Turn over and sew along the drawn horizontal line.

6. Now add the remaining HST's as before.
Trim the units to 6.5" square making sure the 3.25"
passes trough the central points.
Arrange and sew the four units together to form the
block above though you may want to rotate them
the other way as I've reversed the fabric
placement here.