Pinwheels In A Flash

Need to make up a lot of pinwheels but hate piecing fabric triangles on the bias?  Me too... So, I had found a tutorial a long time ago in a desperate search for ways to make half square triangle piecing easier.  For those of you who may not know what that is, a half square triangle is just simply a square made out of two right-angled triangles.  A traditional way of making these is to cut your triangles and then sew them together via the long side of the right triangle.  The problem I have with this method is that it is often my experience that the small point of the triangles at the beginning of your seam tend to get all stuck and  bunched up in the machine, not to mention the fabric stretches along the bias cut of the triangle.  I needed a faster, more fool-proof method; and that just what I found.  Since you're reading this now, now that's also what you've found.

In this project the pattern called for 12 large and 12 small pinwheels.  This method creates 8 half square triangles which in-turn will make 2 pinwheels which makes this prep work a really a fast method for pinwheels.

Step 1  - Create squares of fabric that will make up your pinwheels.  For this project I have solid colors with a white 'confetti' background fabric.  The squares size will depends on the finished size of your pinwheel.  Mine is an odd size here as the final project is a quit for a crib that is slightly larger than the crib mattress size.  You would need to measure is the size of the triangles needed for the half square triangle pieces and work that into determining the size here.  Like I said, mine were a odd size so the squares I've made are approximately 10 inches square.

 

Step 2  - Lay your fabric squares together, right sides of the fabric touching. 

 

Step 3 - Draw lines on the lighter color of fabric in the pair.  Here I've drawn a line from corner to corner, then the other corner to corner and then pencil lines in the center of each straight side.

Step 4 - Use the diagonal line(s) as a guide and sew your 1/4 inch seam on either side of ONLY those diagonal lines.  I've flipped this example over here so you can what this looks like so far.

 

 Step 5 - Cut along the pencil lines that you drew in step 3.  This step will leave you with 8 pieced half square triangles.

Step 6 - After pressing your seams all you need to do is assemble the final block.  For the project I'm working on with this fabric it's pinwheels, but you can use the half square triangles for any pieced block that calls for them.