Friday 22 February 2013

You little ripper

Good morning ladies.  I'm here to show you my second block form the And Sew On paper piecing BOM.



If you don't know about it, go and visit Kirsty at Quiet Play to find out more and join in.  I already posted about this block a couple of weeks ago when I completley ballsed it up, but I thought I'd show you again.

I'm new to paper piecing, so unpicking is bound to happen.  I discovered that unpicking often ripped my already perforated foundation paper.  The solution?  Washi tape!  The back of my block was covered in it!


If you've been paying attention, you may remember that a recklessly ripped open seam resulted in this...


You can also see a second mistake in the photo above.  See the blue flowery block?  See how the top isn't level?  I sewed it on the seam line.  No idea why, but I did. 


Here's a close up of the damage.  Thanks to  Fiona and Kirsty I was able to put it right.  Fiona very calmly gave me the solution but in my panic and hear tearing out I just couldn't get my head round her advice which was "resew the seam".  It took Kirsty telling me to remove the paper that made me realise how right Fiona was!  Duh. 


So I patched her up and sewed the blocks together again.  She's a little puckered around the silver part of the seam ripper, but I don't think she's bad.  The two blue blocks to the right don't match up, but that could be the seam that's being ripped!!


Here she is with my best bud - real life ripper.  And no, I didn't mess up lining up the handle of the seam ripper - it's an ergonomic design and is meant to look like that!

Bring on block 3!


I have stolen the following idea from Chrissie, it's a corker of an idea so I show no remorse at its theft, thanks Chrissie!

Related posts
block 1 - Measure Twice
block 2 - disaster


8 comments:

Oops-Lah said...

I must remember that trick with the washi tape. Can it be ripped easily to take the paper out? Love the "seam ripper block". It looks so real ;)!

Celtic Thistle said...

You see I was right to have every faith in you! Well done on beating that block into submission :)

Shirley said...

I think the ripper is every sewers best friend. Well done for sorting out the problem, most things can be fixed it just takes us time and friends to help us get our head round them.

Samantha said...

My chum Susie did this BOM too : http://susiessunroom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/small-projects-big-satisfaction.html

She said she also had a few issues with the piecing. I have one of those giant unpickers, it's much easier than the tiny ones when you're doing a whole lot of unpicking (like I usually end up doing lol!)

Anonymous said...

It'll get easier the more you do :) I used to hate paper piecing but I love it now my brain understands flipping fabric the other way...

JoJo said...

Looks great! Your sewing projects makes me want to learn how to use my machine once and for all.

quilary said...

Great save!

Chris Dodsley @made by ChrissieD said...

Just catching up on reading my blogs list and was admiring your rip fix and then saw your link to me and 'related posts'. That was good for a giggle first thing in a morning :D