Matching ends and centers when sewing long seams

I avoid pinning when I can get away with it, but sewing long seams is not one of those times.  

The top or bottom fabric may shift a tiny bit relative to the other fabric every time the feed dogs advance the fabrics.  It's usually such a slight shift that it's not noticeable over short seams.  In longer seams, it adds up so that one fabric seems longer than the other, even when they were the exact same length when you started. 

Even if it's a small difference, it makes it harder to piece accurately when you add this unit to another part of the quilt.  That small shift of layers can also add a slight bend in a strip set, or a ripple in the seam.  Sorry I couldn't get a good photo of that, but I'm sure many of you have experienced that firsthand.

The key to avoiding this is to match and pin the two pieces you're sewing together.  I'll demonstrate with strips, but this works for any two edges that are the same length.  You could be sewing a strip to a larger pieced section, or adding a measured border to the side of a quit.  (Check out this tutorial for more on borders.)

Step 1:  Start with two strips of equal length.

Step 2: Fold one strip in half right sides together and the other strip in half wrong sides together.  Crease the folds to mark the center of each strip.

When you unfold them and look at them both right side up, you will see the creases created a little valley in one and a little hill in the other.

Valley in the top strip, hill in the lower one.

Step 3:  When you lay the fabrics right side together in preparation for sewing, the creases in the two pieces should nest.

Of course you'll also need to line up the edges where the seam will be sewn, but I wanted to show you how the two creases nest so had to pull the top fabric down so you could see both fabrics.

Step 4:  Pin center and ends.  

Pin the centers together by pinning in the nested crease.

Match the right ends of the strip and pin in place.  Repeat at the opposite end of the strips.

Step 5:  Add more pins between these to keep the fabric layers from shifting between the pins.  I like to add a pin every 2" to 3". 

If there's a fair distance between the center and the ends, I start by pinning halfway between the center and end pins, then halving that distance with another pin, repeating until everything is pinned every 2" to 3".

Step 6:  Sew the strips together, taking care not to sew on a pin.  

I don't remove all the pins as they near the needle, because then there wouldn't be anything keeping the layers from shifting.  However, I do slow down when I get close to the needle, and slip the pin out immediately in front of the needle, as close as I can get, if it looks like the needle might hit the pin instead of dropping in front of or behind it.

Here is the strip pair, with a ruler to show it's straight and the ends of the original strips are even with each other.

That's all there is to it.  It's a little more time consuming to pin than not, but in the case of longer strips it really helps me piece more accurately for a tidy result.

I'd love to know your top tips for sewing long seams.  Please share them in the comments.

Happy sewing,

Joanne

Thank you to White Owl Textiles, a division of Lumin Fabrics, for sending the fabrics I used in this tutorial.  These are from the Fundamentals collection "Codici".