CD Designs - Basting English Paper Piecing Diamonds

Basting English Paper Piecing Diamonds

In these instructions I am going to describe how to baste a diamond precut paper shape.

With a piece of plastic or cardboard create a cutting template that has a 1/4" seam allowance added to the size of the paper piece. Use the template to trace around on the fabric for cutting out your fabric diamonds.

Center a paper piece diamond on the back of the fabric diamond as show in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Take one edge of the Fabric and wrap it around the paper piece. Use tape to hold the fabric in place as show in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Wrap the opposite corner of fabric over the paper piece as shown in Figure 3. Be very careful not to bend the tip of the paper piece. Hold the fabric with your fingers.

Figure 3

Wrap one edge of fabric over the paper piece as show in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Wrap the opposite edge and make a whip stitch to gather the corner as shown in Figure 5. Make sure you do not sew the fabric to the paper piece (When working with pieces that have edges that are 2" long or longer, you will need to make a stitch into the paper piece along the edges. This helps keep the nice crisp edge).

Figure 5

Wrap the next edge of fabric over the paper piece and make a whip stitch to gather the corner as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6

Work your way around the diamond until all 4 corners are fixed. For 2" or larger shapes you will need to baste to the paper piece between the corners. Remove the tape when you get to that edge. The back of the diamond should look like Figure 7.

Figure 7

Here is a diagram to do those sharp corners

Your Diamond shape is now basted and ready to be whip stitched to another basted shape.