How to cut fabric with Templates A Tutorial

Hi Everyone,

No, I am not going to tell you how to make the Aviatrix Medallion Quilt. I am going to show you my handy dandy way to cut fabric with templates (as long as they are geometric) without having to draw them out and cut them by hand. It is accurate and super fast. One of the templates in the Aviatrix Medallion has to be cut more than 200 times... that is just a lot of cutting without a little shortcut. It took me less than an hour my way. So I hope this helps you all too. Oh and I finished my center by the way:

Draw your templates on to semi transparent template plastic with a dark marker. Something that won't rub off like a sharpie. Make sure the marker is completely dry before you start cutting. Using an acrylic ruler in a smallish size if you have one, (just makes it easier to flip it around you can use a big one if that is all you have) I used a 6" by 12", and some scotch tape. Tape the template to your ruler with one of the angles on the edge of the ruler.

If your template is not bilateral (meaning you can't cut it in half and have two mirror images) then you need to cut two templates. I will show you that in a moment. This piece is bilateral so it will be fine. Cut your fabric in a strip that is the width of the template between the two parallel lines. Lay the ruler and template on your strip so that the two parallels line up with the top and bottom of the strip and the point close to the edge.

Cut off the edge then flip your ruler over and line up the angle with the edge you just cut.

Yes, I know it is upside down but it doesn't matter as long as you are careful not to let it slip it it still works to cut along the edge with your rotary cutter. Flip the ruler back over and around and line up your next piece.

Continue on down the strip. I cut 4 layers at a time this way. Much more than that and you start to get a little less accurate.

The diamonds are just parallelograms too so you do this the same way.

Now, if you have a piece that is still geometric but is not bilateral you can still do this. You just need to cut more templates from the plastic. For the Aviatrix Medallion there is a piece that is like this so I cut it out of the template plastic twice and taped it on two different sides of my ruler like this:

 One side has the angle the other side has the straight.

Then you start with the side that has the angle at the end of your strip:

This is what happens if you don't have the other piece taped on...

You can't cut the next piece because the ruler is in the way :)

So with the side that has the straight edge taped on...

Now I know a lot of us old timers knew how to do this but some of the new sewists don't. So just a little help from me to you! Ta da!