I’m working on one of those special quilts that I can only show you snippets of right now and found myself thinking of you all as pulled out my washi tape for some help cutting. Β Washi tape? Β Why yes…I use it all the time because it’s adorable and makes me happy and you can put it on anything. Β Many of my tips will probably involve the use of washi tape. π
But back to the tip. Β I was fussy cutting some gorgeous unicorns from Heather Ross’ yet to be re-released line Far Far Away (released in July I think) and the ruler that I was using was not an exact match to the dimension I needed to cut. Β They rarely are! Β So out came the washi tape to provide a clear visual divider of the 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ square that I needed.
So I could place the acrylic square ruler directly on the fabric and see exactly where to place it so that I could get as much of the unicorn into my cut as possible at this dimension. Β Sometimes I cut directly from the large piece like this. But other times, I would cut a rough swatch out and then use a small rotating cutting mat with my fancy washi covered ruler to cut out my perfect fussy cut square.
I would line up the ruler with the washi tape at the top because I needed to get that unicorn head in and then trim away the bottom two sides. Β A quick turn of the mat and a flip of the ruler and I could cut the other two remaining sides. Β This was all especially helpful because I was cutting the pieces on the bias as well. Β I had a lot of problems to overcome here. Β And it was washi tape to the rescue!
Do you have any tips for fussy cutting? Β We’d love to hear them!
What a fantastic tip. I could even use that tape trick when cutting repetitive blocks where I have a tendency to be off by a 1/4" for not paying attention!
This is a great tip! Thanks for sharing.
I found this post looking for a fussy cutting tool for a square in a square. The charts show cutting unfinished center square at various eighths marks which many trimmers don’t have). I like this idea because the typical square rulers do indeed have the eighths marked. Thanks.