Jack's Chain - the Tutorial

I'm going to take a break from the graduation, school, and family blogging and share my tutorial on how to piece a Jack's Chain quilt top.  I finished this one recently and am really proud of it.  It's a great, old-fashioned pattern.  Yes, there are lots of inset seams, but I'm here to tell you they are not really that bad!  I personally have never wanted to do the English paper piecing that is so popular with hexagon quilts right now... and you don't have to.  This is all pieced on a machine, with intermediate sewing skills.  My points are not always perfect matches, and I have found that I am a happier person if I don't worry about it too much.  The overall effect is charming, and I can't wait to get this quilted and on my daughter's bed.  So, I'd like to persuade you to attempt this little-known vintage pattern, sometimes also called Rosalia Flower Garden.

I started thinking about this pattern when I was browsing through non-square block patterns in Maggie Malone's 1001 Patchwork Designs.  There are three blocks listed that combine squares, hexagons, and equilateral triangles in this unique way (the others are Merry-Go-Round III and Wedding Tile). 

I like the way it creates a circular-looking pattern even though there are no curved lines to piece, and I thought it would be really cute in the 1930's reproduction fabrics I had been collecting.  I also found the pattern on Quilter's Cache (which is a fabulous resource for all sorts of quilt patterns, by the way!)  Although Quilter's Cache does give step-by-step directions and templates, I don't really like using templates and so I bought a Clearview Triangle ruler at a local quilt store.  This makes it possible to cut both the equilateral triangles and the hexagons without templates.  From that point, I did not really follow the Quilter's Cache piecing directions.

Here's the picture of page 2 of the Quilter's Cache Jack's Chain pattern.  I did use it as a guide for assembling the rows.  Complicating matters still further, this project became a UFO for a few years (I think I started it in 2007) and I didn't get back to it until this year when I've been participating in Judy L.'s UFO project.  I had divided the piecing of the top to be done over two months, and I groaned a little when the number for half of the piecing came up in April.  But surprisingly, I found it was easy to make progress once I cleared some time to work steadily.  I had already pieced a lot of the 9-patches and made enough blocks for a partial row of the finished top (which is 67x94").  I just needed to review and actually write down how I had cut and measured the blocks I had already done before!

The Planning:

I wanted to use '30's reproductions for the 9-patches, white for the hexagons, and various pastel and bright solids for the triangles.  (Many of these solid fabrics are vintage... my grandfather was a partner in a business college in Ohio, and my grandmother had in her stash the 1/2 yard lengths of rainbow colored cotton that were used in the Nancy Taylor course, which was, I guess you would call it, a charm course for secretaries.  So whenever I dig into my vintage solids, I imagine fashionable young women of the Mad Men era figuring out what colors were most flattering with their skin tones.  I've read the books, and they are a hoot).  The only significant yardage I required for this quilt was the white, and I think I used a little less than 3 yards of that.   I have seen some examples of the Jack's Chain pattern online that use the same white background fabric for the hexagons, triangles, and the 4-patches of the 9-patch. If you want to do this, be sure to plan ahead and buy more of the white fabric!

Here's the math that I should have done first, but didn't.  I just plunged in.

9-Patches:
The very first step is to make lots, and I mean lots, of 9-patches that finish to 3".  You will probably choose to do this with 1.5" strips, and your best bet is to pace yourself.  If you make a twin-sized quilt like mine, you will need 335 9-patches that finish to 3" (but with raw edge included, they are 3.5").  That's a lot of 9-patches.  I wanted a scrappy variety of vintage-looking prints, so I tried to use different combinations of the fabrics I had.  I would keep thinking that, surely, I had enough 9-patches.  But then I'd calculate and realize that, no, I actually did not.

Triangles:
At some point, you will want to take a break from making 9-patches and cut some triangles (you will need 238) and hexagons (you will need 110, although some will be trimmed to half-hexagons later).  That's only if you're making a quilt as big as mine; but you're on your own for calculating numbers if you change the size!  For both these shapes, it's important to remember that the Clearview Triangle markings help you figure out the height of the triangle or hexagon, but you are going for a 3" finished measurement along the sides, not the height.  For triangles, I cut strips that were 3 3/8" wide, and then I used the Clearview to subcut the triangle shapes.  I used a mix of pastels, and a few brights (red, turquoise, green).  The sides of the triangles are 3 7/8" in length.  But because of the angle, they will finish up to 3"  So, 238 equilateral triangles, cut from 3 3/8" strips.

Hexagons:
Cutting the white hexagons was more of a challenge.  I think I made a paper template for the first one and measured it.  What you do is to cut strips 5 5/8" wide.  Then, you press them in half lengthwise.  Then you place the 5 5/8" line of the Clearview Triangle on the folded edge, and the 2 3/4" line on the raw edge, and cut along the side angles.  Discard the little white equilateral triangles or save them in your crumb bin: they are too small to work as the triangles you need for this pattern.  You should be able to get 7 hexagons out of one strip; you need 110 total for a twin-size quilt.  When you measure the raw edge of the hexagon, it will be just a smidge over 3 1/4", but again, because of the angles, all the edges will finish to 3".

Arcs and Canoes:
Now we're ready to join 9-patches and triangles into some of the elemental units that will later be formed into blocks.  If you're like me, you'll want to do a few blocks just to see where the pattern's going.  I call the two units above "arcs" and "canoes" because that's what they look like to me.  An arc is 2 9-patches connected by a triangle.  A canoe is 2 triangles connected by a 9-patch.  My quilt uses 112 arcs and 63 canoes.

Looking closely at how the triangles match up with the 9-patches, you can see that the 3" finished measurement is where you will need to start and stop stitching.  I drew little dots so you can see.  The triangle points extend a little beyond the straight edge of the 9-patch, but because of the angle, the lengths are just about exactly even along the future seamline, 1/4" in from the top edge.  You will need to backtack to secure the stitches at beginning and end of each seam.  I know, it's a bit of a drag if you're used to chain piecing and never stopping, using leaders and enders, etc.  You kind of have to get into a frame of mind where you are not primarily concerned about speed piecing, and you will be surprised at how fast it actually does go.  When you are piecing a unit and one seam meets another one, as in the arc unit, make sure to position the seam allowances for the first seam so they are not caught in the second seam.

Wheels and Apple Cores:
Now we are ready to begin constructing the blocks themselves.  There are three basic types of blocks; above is what I call a "wheel."  I made it by sewing two arc units onto opposite sides of a hexagon, and then adding two canoes on either side.  If you have a stack of arcs and canoes ready to go, you can make a wheel block with 10 seams, each of them 3" long.  My quilt needed 28 wheel blocks.

The second type of block is what I call an "apple core."  It consists of two arcs on opposite sides of a hexagon, just like the start of the wheel block.  There are 21 apple core blocks in my quilt.  By adding a single canoe unit to an apple core, you create an "end" block, needed for the end of each row in my quilt: I needed 7 of those.

Here's a view of one seam of a hexagon joined to a 9-patch.  You can see that where the triangle was longer than the 9-patch at the raw edge, the hexagon is a little shorter.  But it is even at the 1/4" seam line, which is where it counts.  Start and stop stitching at the point where the 1/4" seamlines cross.  I tend to eyeball it and it usually works.  And you do need to clip the threads close to the fabric after stitching.  Again, wherever you have multiple seams meeting at that 1/4" point, make sure not to stitch over the seam allowances.  Stitch back and forth a few times at the beginning and end of each seam.  I think it worked best if I avoided pressing the seams until after I had joined an entire row or even multiple rows of the quilt.

Rows:
For my quilt, I joined 4 wheels, 3 apple cores, and 1 end block to make a row that was 8 hexagons long.  That's the width of the quilt.  In addition, you will eventually need to piece the connector or "chain" rows.  In the above photo there are two regular rows and one connector row in between them.

My chain connector rows consisted of 8 9-patches alternating with 9 hexagons.  The two hexagons on either end will eventually be trimmed to half-hexagons.  And yes, when the quilt is ready for binding, I will be binding a very scallop-y, raggedy edge.  I will almost certainly need to use binding cut on the bias, not straight of grain.  It's similar to the technique used to bind a Double Wedding Ring quilt.  The alternative would be to cut with a rotary cutter to make a straight edge, and I don't think I would have the heart to do that!

Here's a shot of how I didn't work: I never used pins.  But you could certainly do so if you were concerned about hitting the right 1/4" intersection point, or keeping the seam allowances out of the way of the needle.  Remember that Jack's Chain has a different rhythm than most modern quilts: there's a lot of stop-and-start seaming, but the seams are short and regular, and you will very quickly get used to how the quilt goes together.

My final quilt had 7 regular rows and 6 chain connector rows, and is 67"x94" or twin size.  I didn't calculate everything out in advance, and I have enough extra blocks to make a baby quilt, which I'm working on now.  I did find that one very thorough pressing with steam at the end of all the set-in seaming was good: pressing before all the seams were joined meant I was more likely to have trouble with a seam allowance getting caught in the stitching.

If you find this tutorial helpful, please drop me a line or even send a photo of yours.  I'd love to see this pattern become more popular!

Darn Those Jeans! - my first tutorial

Here's my first ever photo tutorial!  If you have a sewing machine with a darning foot, also used for Free Motion machine quilting, it's a quick process and can add years of life to a beat-up pair of jeans.  Last week when Primigenitus was off looking at colleges with Steve I went through his clothes and found this pair that had a belt loop pulled free from the waist.

There was also a nice L-shaped tear on the upper leg -- not the knee where they usually wear out.

For this method the set-up of the sewing machine is important.  You need a darning foot or free-motion foot that is compatible with a zig-zag stitch, and you need to have a free-arm if your pants legs are going to fit under the needle.  The darning foot for my machine was a $20 purchase about 15 years ago ... best $20 I ever spent.  Even though I don't use it much for machine quilting anymore, it has helped me finish many quilts in the past, and this technique has saved probably hundreds of dollars in blue jeans... my menfolk are tough on their clothes!  Along with the darning foot, you will need to drop the feed dogs so that you control the movement of the fabric under the foot instead of it being fed through in one direction by the machine.  And you can't see it, but my machine requires you to set the pressure on the presser foot to the "darning" setting, which is the lowest possible.  This means the fabric will not be pressed tightly to the throat plate while you are working, but has lots of freedom for you to move it around.

I like the 3-step zig-zag stitch for this technique.  Set the widest stitch width.  Stitch length doesn't matter because you will be controlling that yourself.  Just be sure that your free-motion quilt is wide enough to accommodate it!

You will need a patch to back the hole and serve as a foundation fabric.  It should be about 1/2" larger on all sides than the hole.  It doesn't matter if it's not the same shape: you'll trim any excess away afterwards.  I usually use denim scraps, but couldn't find any since I cleaned out my sewing room so this is a scrap from an old chambray shirt or jumper.  I used two pins to hold it in place from the front:

I tackled the smaller hole at the waist first.  It can be a little tricky to maneuver the bulky set-up under the presser foot:

Once you get it flat, and make sure the pins are holding the patch in place on the back, lower the presser foot.  It will seem like it's the same up or down, but your machine won't work if it's up!  Bring the bobbin thread up and take a few stitches that take bites from both the patch and the edge of the hole.  The motion of the 3-step zig-zag will be left-right, but your own hands will control forwards and backwards motion.  Once you get used to this motion, you can pick up the speed.  Just be sure you remember where the pins are and remove them once you have enough stitching in place to hold the patch in place!  I used a light blue polyester thread this time: cotton thread would be fine too.  I keep going with the stitching until the entire surface of the former hole is covered with stitching.  It's like creating a new fabric over that spot.

The blue thread blends in nicely with the denim fabric.  Once the belt loop is sewn back down you'll hardly be able to notice.

This is how it looks on the back after I trimmed away the excess fabric from the patch.

True confessions: I broke two needles, both when sewing down that bulky belt loop.  You do need to be careful not to tug the jeans in any direction too quickly, especially when sewing over a bulky area.  I took a break and gave my machine a good clean-out, which it needed.

And I eventually got the thing sewn down.  It looks almost as good as new!

Then it was time to pin and sew the second hole.  I trimmed off some of the loose threads that were sticking out from the hole and would just have gotten in the way.  Since this one was on the actual leg, it was a lot more challenging to tug into position over the free-arm.

I find it difficult to take pictures of my hands while they're sewing.  This is a still shot.  The technique is the same: back and forth and up and down until all the edges of the hole are attached to the backing patch, and then all over until a new, firm fabric is created.

And here it is finished on the outside.

And on the inside... oops, the patch got folded over.  No worries: the stitching will hold it tight through many washes and the edges will fray and soften after they're trimmed.

Here it is trimmed.

And all done!  I wonder if Primigenitus has noticed that his jeans are fixed yet.  I think these are the only pair without paint spatters on them from last summer.

If you use this tutorial I hope it helps extend the life of your blue jeans and saves you some money.  And I'd love to hear back from you if you do.  Thanks for stopping by!