Fixing an "Oopsie"

Ok...I hope I'm not the only bonehead that this happens to!

As I was quilting a charity quilt for my guild, the Twisted Stitchers, an errant 4-patch on the table slipped underneath the quilt and managed to get itself sewn into one of the lines of quilting. In the big scheme of things it's not a big deal, but when you turn the quilt over to check thread tension and see that, well...it's a forehead slap for sure...duh!

Now, I call this a teachable moment (I took pictures!) and you can learn by my mistake. Rather than take out the entire line of stitching the 4-patch was going to be sacrificed in the name of keeping my sanity and minimizing the swear words that were under the surface ready to be unleashed.

Here's how to fix this particular “oopsie”:

Grab a small pair of sharp scissors and carefully cut away one side of the offending fabric/block/patch close to the line of stitching making sure that you don't cut the stitching thread or the fabric underneath. Repeat on the other side of the stitching line.

When the offending fabric/block/patch has been cut away, carefully remove the remaining fabric bits with a pair of tweezers. Take small bits at a time, don't pull too roughly and work both sides of the stitching line. Some fibres will come away more easily on one side than the other.

Once all the fabric bits are removed you may find that the stitches are a little loose since multiple layers of fabrics have been sewn together and then one or two layers have been removed. From both the front and the back you can redistribute the excess thread by sliding a pin under a few stitches (and tugging the thread a little) on either side of the excess until it looks flatter.

My regular students are used to me and my “fudging” methods and this one has definitely been used in the classroom before. I hope that this will help you in the future if this particular problem happens to you.