Tips for stitching a long pojagi seam
Often we want to make large projects with pojagi patchwork seams. Shower curtains, tablecloths and bed spreads are all great applications for this reversible patchwork technique. But the long seams can be tricky. These five tips will help.
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Below you will find:
- video tutorial
- written details
- projects that use long pojagi seams
Video
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Details
Pojagi seams are different from 1/4” patchwork seams, so they have to be treated differently.
Don’t know how to stitch a reversible pojagi patchwork seam? See the detailed tutorial here.
Short seams are pretty simple. They are forgiving and flexible so you don’t have to be too accurate. But with long seams you need to take a bit more care.
When you are stitching a long pojagi seam, remember these five things.
Lay on a flat surface
As much as possible, lay out your seam on a flat surface. That way you can align your fabrics without moving it a lot.
Ideally, you can lay your fabrics out totally flat or only have to move them once but do the best you can with the space you have.
This is definitely worth getting up and going to a table to lay out. Don’t try to align the seam in your lap.
Use a ruler
The offset in the seam is approximately 1/4” (or a tiny bit less). In short seams, I just eyeball this distance.
But with longer seams, it is more challenging to get it consistent. So using a ruler will help your fabrics stay straight.
The purpose of the ruler is not to make sure your offset is exactly 1/4”, but to make sure it is the same along the length of the seam.
Trim if needed
If your fabrics are not straight, it will be even more challenging to get the fabrics lined up.
Trim the fabric if you need to to make sure it is a straight edge.
Use pins (not clips!)
In traditional quilt piecing, I am not normally a pinner. But with long pojagi seams, pins are very helpful.
After you layout the seams with the offset edges, use pins to hold the fabrics together while you move to the sewing machine.
Note: In this situation, pins are better than clips. Because the edges are offset, you need to make sure that the fabric cannot slide around.
Press one step at a time
Pressing pojagi seams is much different from pressing 1/4” seams.
With a long seam, I prefer to do the first stage of pressing on the entire seam first and then the second stage. This is easier than trying to do both the first and second stage on a section and then moving to another section.
This is especially true as you are doing final seams and the fabric piece you are joining are quite large.
So don’t be intimidated by long pojagi seams. They are not too difficult, they just need a bit more attention than short seams.