Fat Quarter Dresden Plate

Fat Quarter Dresden Plate- This post was sponsored by Art Gallery Fabrics. They have provided the fabric for the project and the giveaway. Rest assured that I only work with companies whose products I use and love and I would never recommend something that I don’t adore!

This project is a two part project! Today we will start with the fat quarter dresden! I was just too excited to get the giveaway started (scroll down for that!) In a few days I will post part two, spoiler alert we are making a baby tummy time mat! But for now lets get going on this Dresden plate tutorial!

These fat quarter bundles are Fleet and Flourish from Maureen Cracknell. A little tribal mixed with floral…this is my jam! For this project (I made two and that is what you need for the completed baby tummy time mat) I used 14 fat quarters.

I just had to give you a better look at some of these beautiful fat quarters! I am seriously in love with everything about this line!

Now you want to download these: dresden template 1 and dresden template 2 then print them and tape them together as pictured down below.

Now cut the template out. I traced it onto cardboard and cut it out so it was sturdy enough for repeated use.

Line the template up so that it is touching the top and bottom (just about) this will allow you to get three plates per fat quarter. If you line it up the other way there is a lot of excess on top of the template and you can only fit two so you will have a lot of wasted fabric.

Then go ahead and cut the three plates from the fat quarter. You will cut one and then flip the template top to bottom then cut, then flip the template top to bottom one more time.

If you have 14 fat quarters and cut three from each you should end up with 42 plates. You need 20 for one full dresden (I actually ended up only needing 19, I think my 1/4″ seam was a touch under but have 20 in case your seam is better than mine!)

Now take each blade and fold it in half (as pictured) right sides together.

Run all 40 through the machine sewing a 1/4″ from the top. You are sewing the big end not the small end.

Next you are going to turn the seam out. take your finger and hold the corner of the sewn seam. Then with your other hand open the fabric up and push the corner through. It should create a triangle, as seen below. Open and press all the seams so that they look like this.

Next we are ready to start putting the pieces together. Line up two of the blades as pictured below. I will note that I did some re-pressing with each blade that I added. I would do a quick press just to make sure that the triangles lined up. This keeps it looking straight and uniform.

Sew along the edge and you should be left with this. Press the seam in place and then add another blade.

Continue in this fashion all the way around. When you have 14 or 15 blades put together go ahead and lay the piece out on the floor. Then you can arrange the final blades and make sure that the color story is good. This will also give you a good idea of how many blades you will actually use.

Here is the final product. Excuse the kid toys…the other option had a dog nosing the fabric, I just couldn’t win with this one!

You could be done there. Appliqué this onto a quilt and go! How adorable would that be?? If you want to continue on with our tummy mat project meet me back here in a few days!! Scroll down a bit more to enter the giveaway!!

I love love love the sweet patterns on this fabric and as always the hand feel of it is beyond compare! Don’t be mad at me if you can’t buy fabric anywhere else after you feel this fabric!