90 Degree Corners

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   Greetings! It's been a little while since my last post, and I hope y'all are doing well and having fun with craft projects. I'm so happy to finally be getting back to making. Although I managed to work on a few small projects during the interim, it wasn't quite the same, because I was working around doctor's appointments and bad days. (I had to get surgery on both shoulders, and prior to surgery there was quite a bit of weakness in my hands, which was limiting my activities.) While I'm still recovering from the last procedure, my hands have definitely improved, and I'm hoping to get back to knitting soon!

    In the meantime, most of my projects have been made with quilting cotton and include many corners, such as the crochet hook cases and certain book covers. I have to admit, corners used to drive me crazy. They never came out nice and sharp, especially with heavier fabrics like flannel. It was especially frustrating on collars, cuffs, and button plackets, where it seemed to stand out so much. I watched many YouTube videos to try to fix it, and tried all the different techniques I could find. A lot seemed to work better with thinner, silky fabrics than with cotton and flannel. Then I saw a video that used thread. I'm sure many of you have seen the spare thread method for turning corners; I don't know if it has a different name, but that's what I've been calling it in my head. You know the one, where you stitch a length of extra thread into the corner seam and then use it to tug the point when you're turning it. I can't remember where I first saw it, but it's been demonstrated in many videos on YouTube and Instagram. It's very helpful, and I started using it all the time. But sometimes the seam allowances just refused to fold neatly, and the corners ended up still lumpy. Pointy, but lumpy.

    Then I saw a video by @SewingTherapy called All About Corners. I definitely related to not wanting to trim corner seam allowances! This method for 90 degree corners worked well when I tested it, so I switched to this style. Depending on your fabric and project, it might be the only method you need. But occasionally I've had projects where I just couldn't get my fingers into the corners while turning them, or my fabric was too 'sticky' and I couldn't get the corner to fully turn (I'm looking at you, flannel). In some cases, both issues happened at the same time.

    Eventually, I ended up putting the two methods together. The video of how to do that is below. By combining these two methods and throwing in an iron, even troublesome fabrics can't stand in the way of nice corners. I can get sharp, flat edges that make me happy every time! I hope this helps y'all as well. 🙂