Sunday Stitch School: Preparatory Lesson - Template Making

Hi, and welcome to Sunday Stitch School.  Today we won't be learning a new stitch! Instead, we will be preparing for next week's stitch, which is a six-pointed star. 

In the past, I have made a number of hexagon templates from scratch while carefully looking at the instructions, but after a few weeks, I always seem to forget the technique. 

Therefore I wanted to record the process, as this will help me make both hexagons and stars with six tips. Once this is published on the blog, I can always go back and find the instructions whenever I need to.

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Things needed: 

a sheet of paper, a pencil and a compass. 

Later on, a ruler, an eraser, a circle template, a piece of template plastic, a stiletto/awl or other sharp instrument for piercing, a marker with permanent ink and a pair of scissors.

1. Draw a straight line.

2. Align the compass at 90º and make a new line.

3. You now have a straight cross.

4. Place the compass on the horizontal line.

5. Make pencil marks at 30º and 150º.

6. Align a ruler on the cross point and the 150º pencil mark and draw a line.

7. Do the same with the cross point and 30º mark.

8. Use an eraser to remove the horizontal line.

9. Place a circle template right over the middle of the cross point. Draw the circle.

10. Draw several more circles and mark the spots where the circle meets the straight lines.

11. For a permanent template, trace the dots onto a piece of template plastic.

12. Use a sharp pointed stiletto or awl and make holes in the plastic.

13. Use markers with permanent ink and fill in the triangles created between the dots.

14. Use a pencil with a fine enough tip to go through the holes in the template to mark the fabric.

15. For a hexagon, draw a continuous line from dot to dot. 

16. You need a pair of scissors to cut out the hexagon template. It is then easy to trace the shape onto scrap cards for hexagon quilt making.