Octagonal table topper, part 1

Well Summer has arrived finally. We are having some partly cloudy, partly sunny days in the 70s, perfect weather!

So I thought I'd do a tutorial on my hexagon table topper. This is a great thing to show case some of those large prints, or those that you are having trouble cutting up.

Start out with a nice sized square, mine is 10"x10".

You want your corners to be cut, so that all 8 of your 'sides', or strait edges are roughly the same size. So  you want to cut your square at close to the third mark. I placed my ruler so that I was cutting 3" up and over.

Cut all your corners the same way, the same length. Now all my straight sides are roughly 4".

Pick your border fabric. I chose some red strips that are 2" wide. Cut four of those strips 2" longer than one straight side. So I cut mine 6". Fold one hexagon side in half and pinch, to mark the middle. Do the same for your border strip. Pin at the pinch, and sew with a 1/4" seam.

Add your four 6" border like this.

Take your ruler, place the corner of it right along the edge of one side, and lay the ruler down along the diagonal corner to the outside edge of the other strip. Add an inch, and cut four more strips. Mine are 10" long.

Place one 10" strip on diagonal corner. And sew a 1/4" seam.  Place ruler along side it and cut off the ears.

Now to make your hexagon a hexagon, and not a square at this point, place your ruler from one side to the other along the corner strip edge. Making sure you cut off the same length on each side (just like you did your first square).

Cut off all your corners. 

Now all my straight sides are now 5.5". My next border is 4.5" in width, and I am going to show you how to miter the corners. So to the 5.5", add twice the width, so 9". Cut eight strips that are 14" long.

Fold one side of the hexagon, and the strip you are going to add to it, pinch to find your middle. And pin together. Sew 1/4" seam, making sure you START and STOP 1/4" from the corner. You can even put a dot at each corner, so you remember to stop/start there. Sewing with the octagon on top.

 

This time you can add your strips straight around, you don't have to add them on opposite sides and then the corners. Pin back the first strip, so it doesn't get in your way.

When adding your next strips, make sure you start EXACTLY at the end of your previous seam. Not on it, not in front or behind it. Right on the end.

When you have all your border strips on, it will look like this.

These corners are a smidge over 60 degrees. If you have a ruler that measures exact degrees, you can use that to make your miters.

I don't have a ruler like that, so this is what I do. Fold your topper so that two sides are right sides together, matching up all sides.

 Lay your ruler along the fold of your topper, making sure the edge is right at the end of the seam on your border.

Draw a line from that tip of the seam, to the bottom of your strip.

Pin and sew RIGHT on that line. Making sure you start at the very end of that seam, not on it, before it or after it.

Cut off the end, leaving a 1/4" seam.

Do that for all your corners. It's so important to get that degree just right. Or your topper wont lay flat (as this one will once I iron it ;)

 

I'll be back in a few days, to talk about quilting this and adding some embelishments. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Dorian

©Copyright D. Lucas, 2011 This is my tutorial. You are welcome to use any of my tutorials for personal use. You are not permitted to use my pictures or my words without linking back to the original and giving me credit for them.