Tips for Tiny Piecing

It’s no secret that we love everything Giucy Giuce designs. We even just had him here teaching for a fun retreat and more on the schedule! And since he’s known for his fun tiny piecing patterns, we wanted to give you our best tips for making your tiny pieced projects have a big visual impact.

Pay attention to your fabric quality.

Since you’re already shopping at Quilting Mayhem and bringing home Giucy Giuce fabrics, among others, you know that using quilt shop quality cottons for intense piecing is key. They hold their shape better and are less prone to fraying. You don’t want your tiny piecing to disappear into a mess of threads!

Color is important, but don’t discount a big print. 

If you’re focusing more on mastering the tiny piecing technique, aim for fabrics like solids, small prints, on tone-on-tone fabrics to show off your precise piecing. Giucy Giuce likes to play with color gradients and contrasting hues to make his tiny piecing pop.

And if you see a big print you love, you can use it but think small. You’re not going to fit that entire Kaffe Fassett flower into your block. But you can look at the color placement in the overall print and treat it like many different fabrics together. Feel free to precut any sections apart to help you plan your color placement.

Don’t forget to adjust your stitch length.

Shorten your stitch length to around 1.5 mm. This helps secure your seams better and reduces the chance of it popping apart as you work with such small pieces. The smaller stitch length also gives you more control and precision.

Press, don’t iron.

Lift and press your iron down rather than sliding it across your piecing. Moving that heavy iron across your seams will distort your pieces and we don’t want all that hard work to be for nothing! You can even use a mini iron to help you get into tight spaces and have more control over your seams.

We always have so much fun with Giucy Giuce’s projects. We’re excited to tackle the Mini Alphabet with his next sew along. We know our tiny pieced alphabets will be precisely pieced show stoppers!