How to sew a perfect quarter-inch seam every time

This tutorial is near and dear to my heart because I spent my first year of quilting not understanding why I always sewed a consistent three-eighths inch stitch instead of a quarter-inch stitch. Once I learned these methods, my accuracy improved overnight and I really started to enjoy sewing because everything turned out the way it was supposed to.

In the video above, I show you three different methods to set up your sewing machine and presser feet to sew a perfect quarter-inch seam every time. By using these techniques, you’ll be able to achieve a perfect seam no matter how basic or fancy your machine is. I’ve used them on everything from a cheap Singer without a quarter-inch foot to a computerized Babylock made especially for quilters and I’m able to get the same accurate results on both machines.

I’ll show you how to mark a quarter-inch sewing guide on your machine, how to use a quarter-inch presser foot and how to use your machine’s pre-programmed stitches to sew an accurate quarter-inch seam every time you work on a quilting project.

I hope you’ll enjoy this tutorial and it helps you too if you’re struggling with sewing a consistent quarter-inch seam.

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Comment (17)

  1. I could have used this video this weekend when I was helping a new quilter. Her seams went from 3/8 to 3/4 inches.

  2. Helped someone else who did a T-shirt quilt by using your tutorial. She wanted a boarder on hers and she got it all done.

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  3. Thanks! It’s almost second nature to me now to set my needle position and flip to reverse, BUT I spent some time trying to help a friend get hers right, and from 2500 miles away, it’s tough. Your video will do the trick, I think. Thank you for a great tutorial. I like your manicure, too. 😉

  4. Great helpful video. Wish I’d seen it when I began quilting 2 yrs. ago. I have a Brother Innovis VQ3000 that suppose to be like the Baby Lock, so I’m going to have to test these out to see which works best for me. I do have the 1/4 presser foot with the guide on it but sometimes I can’t even stay straight with it and my pins get hung up in it if I don’t get them out in time. Again thanks.

  5. Great tutorial! I love the 3 choices that were given. One of the 3 has to benefit everyone and their machine. Thank you!

  6. What you don’t make clear in this post is that quilters DO NOT sew a 1/4” Seam, they sew a Scant 1/4” seam. A 1/4” seam is 6 mm wide. By sewing a 5 mm wide seam your blocks will come out at the correct size. This is because when the seam is pressed to one side it adds that extra 1 mm. Try it.

    1. If that works for you, then keep doing it. But nearly every pattern is written to sew an actual 1/4″ seam. Occasionally patterns will call for a scant 1/4″ seam in addition to the regular 1/4″. I call for a scant 1/4″ every time I have a pattern that sews triangles from squares, that way there is a little extra for trimming the triangle unit square.

      1. I am a beginner quilter and what you said is how I was taught by my two sisters who been quilting for several years and my mother who was a professional seamstress explained the quarter inch for quilting and half inch for her drapes,a scant quarter is a pencil line less. Use the scant when your pattern calls for that. And thanks for the info , I did not know that about the foot, I have a lot to learn. Love watching these tutorials there is a lot to pick up from them.

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