How Sewers Can Use Fat Quarters

If you're a sewer perhaps you've been in your local fabric store and you've seen these wonderful little bundles of fabric or you've seen stacks of fabric packaged like this, and there's a ribbon on them. Maybe they're in a basket, maybe they're stacked up, and you're wondering, what are those? What are those for? Well, historically they're quilter's fat quarters. They're used for quilting. But sewers can use them too with a little bit of creativity. So what exactly is a fat quarter? Well, let's go back to basic fabric 101. When you buy fabric off the bolt today, and usually quilter's fabric is cotton, not always, but we're gonna say cotton, it's about 42 to 44 inches wide. And along one edge is the, or two edges, are the selvedges. That's you're a straight of grain, and then this is your cross grain. And as you go across, the width of the fabric again is 42 or 44 inches. So when you buy a quarter yard of fabric the lady at the counter comes over nine inches and cuts it. And you have a piece that's nine inches by approximately 44 inches wide, the width of the fabric. A fat quarter is just what it sounds. It's still a quarter of a yard, but it's fat. It is 18 inches by approximately 21. So as you can see, I have the selvedge on one edge, but when I open it up I have a cut edge opposite my selvedge and it's wider. I have 18 inches and it's by 21 inches, which is half the width of the fabric. So it's still a quarter of a yard, it's just wider and fatter or shorter, I should say. There's a lot of advantages though, even for sewers, and you may want to consider buying yourself some fat quarters. First of all, it's precut. You don't have to take a number and wait in line forever just to get a quarter yard of cotton fabric. Just grab and go. They're very, very easy to store. They stack up, they're nice and neat. Put 'em in a basket, put 'em in a drawer, whatever. There you go. It doesn't take up a lot of room in your sewing room. It's an inexpensive way to sample the fabric. They're usually only, oh, anywhere from two-fifty to three-fifty, maybe four dollars, depending on the quality and price of the fabric. This is, for instance, a homespun fabric. We use homespun a lot for shirting in the sewing world, so this is just a little fat quarter and it was three-fifty. You also have it in flannel. You will find it in wool. You can find it again in your different cotton prints. And what I like to do is use them for decorative accents. I don't have to have a lot of fabric to do a color or a cuff or pockets. And rather than standing in line to buy a little bit of extra flannel for my flannel shirt to have accent, I can just pick up the fat quarter. Or if I'm doing a little dress and I just need a little bit extra to perk it up for a yoke or some collar cuff accents for my little granddaughter, again, I just pick up a fat quarter. It's fast, easy and simple. The other thing you can do is with fat quarter, you can make some cute little pillows. If you take two fat quarters, again, remember it's 18 by 21. If you take two of these, you can cut it and make a 16 by 16 inch pillow out of two fat quarters. Make it reversible, have fun with it, put a little strip in it, do what you want. Use your imagination. If you have those wonderful little rectangular small pillows that we use for travel or for children, again, two fat quarters and you can make a pillow case. So use your imagination. But be forewarned, fat quarters are fun and they're very addictive.