Let's Talk Hexies...a Fussy Cutting Tutorial

A couple weeks back I was talking with a new friend of mine about how I fussy cut shapes for making hexagon flowers.  When I told her how I did it, she said that she had never thought to do it that way.  And that surprised me.

Later I was thinking about what my friend had said and it occurred to me that I don't know ANYONE that fussy cuts the way I do...that has blogged about it anyway.  An online search for "fussy cutting shapes for English Paper Piecing" turned up different ways...but not my way. 

What way you ask?  That is what I am about to share with you.

Here's what you need:

• Fabric...usually a 1/4 yd is plenty but sometimes you can get away with an 1/8 yd
• Desired paper shapes...for this tutorial I'm doing hexagons
• Sewline Glue Stick
• And small scissors

That's it!  No little plastic templates...no laying one cut shape onto top of another to match...none of that stuff.

It's just you and your light box...and some glue.

To begin lay your fabric face down on your light box and turn on the box.  Now you can lay your hexi shapes over the different motifs in the fabric to see how they'll look when made.  As you can see from the pictures below, you can easily see through the papers to select just the right motif.

 



Once you've selected the motif you wish to cut out, it's time to use your glue stick.  Swipe a small dab of glue to the center of your hexi shape and position it over the desired motif and press in place.  .

Repeat the process with the other five hexies, making sure to place them in the same position each time.  When doing this, pay special attention to what the corners are matching up to and make sure to do it exactly the same way with each hexi.

The next step is to cut out your shapes with your scissors leaving around the shape to turn.  A 1/4" is sufficient but you can get away with a little less if you have to.

The last thing you need to do is turn the edges for EPP.  Using your glue stick again, light swipe the edge of your glue stick across the paper and turn the edge.  You don't need a lot of glue to turn the edges.  So do not to use the flat end of the glue stick...just the edge.

TIP:  if you find that too much glue is coming off on the paper or getting

kinda "globby", stick it in the freezer for a few minutes.  Trust me...it'll help.

Once your hexies are prepped, you can now play with their placement and select a fabric for the flower's center.  Here is my first layout...

...and here is my final layout.

Usually when I'm working on hexies, I like to do several at the same time.  Here are some others I did yesterday while working on this tutorial. 

 And they became these...

I hope y'all enjoyed this and found it helpful.  I also hope that it wasn't old news!  If you have a way that you think is easier I'd love to hear about it.

And if you decide to do it this way, let me know how it went. 

Till next time...