7 Day Mystery Sew Along- Day 1

YAY, Day 1 of my Mystery Sew Along is here! Are you excited? I sure am. This project has been in the works for quite while and today I can finally get you started. Day 1 is a quick and easy sewing day, just to ease you into it, so you won't need to find a lot of the time to participate.

I gave you a "Homework Assignment" on Thursday so hopefully you have selected your two fabrics for the project top and made your first cuts. If you haven't had time to do your cutting yet, here's a little recap:

You need:

• 1 x 1 1/2" WOF strip of white fabric. 
• 1 x 1 1/2" WOF strip of blue fabric.

TIP: Because we are strip piecing and cross cutting the strips, I strongly suggest you cut your WOF strips in half, across the narrow width, to eliminate distorting the fabric as you sew. Sewing long seams like this can bow the fabric, so sewing them in shorter lengths ie. in half or even thirds if you prefer, gives you more control and you can consistently maintain the required width along the length of each strip.

OK, you have you WOF strips cut in half, so here we go:

Step 1: Sew a white strip to each of the blue strips, along the long sides and pressing your seams towards the blue fabric. Your strips should measure 2 1/2" wide when complete.

TIP: for a nice crisp seam, set your seam first by pressing with a hot iron and then finger press along the length of the seam, opening it in the direction you want to press, before pressing flat with your iron.

Step 2: Trim and square up one end of the strip and then cross cut units at 1 1/2" intervals. You will need to cut 26 of these units and each unit should measure 1 1/2" x 2 1/2".

TIP: Line up the centre seam of the strip with any marking on your ruler to ensure your cut units are squared up and accurate.

We will be sewing with only need 8 of these units today.

Step 3: Arrange the 8 units, in alternate directions, into four sets of two units as shown in the above photo.

Step 4: Carefully matching the centre seam, sew each set of units together, along the long sides, pressing the seams open to yield four perfect little four patch blocks which should measure 2 1/2" square when complete.

Well done everyone, that's it for today :) See nice and easy!

Store today's sewing and extra units in a zip lock bag and write Day 1 on the front so you can find them easily when we need them again and then you won't lose any pieces.
Do you use these bags in your sewing room? I use them a lot and I buy the plain ones without the labels and slide a piece of notepaper inside. Its much easier to remove the paper and not scribble all over the label each time and you can reuse them for ages.
OK, now for today's "Homework Assignment":

This is what we'll be working with tomorrow so if you find a little spare time throughout the day, cut your fabric and you will be all organised for tomorrows sewing session.

Thanks so much for joining in. You're awesome :)
Cya tomorrow :)