Replies

1. 
   sanderson | Feb 22, 2004 05:54pm | #1

   Do you mean cutting a circle out of cloth as in a round tablecloth?  If so you need a pin and a string and a chalk.  Tie the end of the string to the chalk (or pencil) and measure the length of the string to be the radius (half of the diameter) of your intended circle.  Pin the end of the string to the middle of the fabric.  Fold the fabric into quarters and with the string taut, draw the arc from outer edge of the quartered fabric to outer edge.  Either cut through four layers of fabric with a rotary cutter or refold and remark the remaining quarters. 

1. 
   jblong | Feb 22, 2004 07:16pm | #2

   No, there is a method that you can use while sewing a circle....I can't recall the exact details but you do something to the fabric, I think, that causes it to pull through the feed dogs in a circle.  I think I may have seen this done on Sewing with Nancy but I watched so many sewing shows years ago that I would be hard pressed to say where I saw it.

   Thanks anyway.

1. 
   sarahkayla | Feb 23, 2004 12:15am | #3

   if you are talking about making little circles... say eyelets...some of the catalogs...like clotilde and nancy's notions sells a foot called something like the daisy foot or flower foot that allows you to make eyelets on the machine... i love this tool and use it all the time...my guess is that most people don't need it for all the time...it costs about 20 bucks.. I use it to make the eyelets for the ritual fringes on a tallit (prayer shawl).

   it is also cool for making stars and starbursts on the machine using metallic thread.

   sarah in nyc

2. 
   callie1 | Feb 23, 2004 02:51am | #4

        There is a tool you can buy for your sewing machine to sew perfect circles of different sizes.  It's basically a metal arm with a pin on it.  You place the pin in the center of the circle and adjust the arm to the radius you want.  The feed dogs then pull the fabric through and sew and perfect circle.  I've used it on a quilt.  I got it from my sewing machine supplier.

1. 
   Marion6422 | Feb 23, 2004 04:38pm | #5

   One time I wanted to sew some small circles and taped a thumb tack to the machine bed just in line with the needle so that if I stuck the fabric onto the pin of the tack and started sewing, carefully holding the fabric smoothly from the pin to the needle, it did sew in a circle. As I remember, the fabric was interfaced so that it had some body. Does this help?

2. 
   Marion6422 | Feb 23, 2004 04:46pm | #6

   I should have added to my previous message that the thumb tack was taped upside down so the pin stuck up and that it was placed to the side of the needle, not in front of it.

   Edited 2/23/2004 8:48:10 AM ET by MARION13

2. 
   Barbaran8 | Feb 23, 2004 06:07pm | #7

   I saw a really cool quilt where they had sewn circles onto the quilt kind of like the old kaliedograph drawings that you used to get in the 70s? It was at this store: http://www.gatheringfabric.com/home.htm I bet you could call them and find out what attachment was used for that.