PAPER TEMPLATES VS ACRYLIC TEMPLATES

When comparing Paper Templates with Acrylic Templates, each has its Pros and Cons, in order to figure those out more easily, I have broken down the comparison in three subjects: the Cost, the Size and the Time

The cost is about the money aspect of the template taking into consideration what needs to be bought in order to make it or use it.

The size is about the dimension that the template allows the block to be.

The time is about the estimation of minutes or hours that the making or the use of the template will consume in order to get the project going.

PAPER TEMPLATES

1. Cost

All that is needed to make a paper template is a piece of paper, a ruler and a pen. So the cost of making one's own templates is very low.

Three possibilities concerning the type of paper to use:

- You will be using the paper to trace the shape on the fabric, in that case the paper needs to be a heavy weight paper as you want it to be as thick as possible so that you can reuse it several times and avoid that it bends in the corners.

- You will be pinning the paper on the fabric and cutting around it, in that case you want to use a light weight paper in order to use pins and you will need to prepare several copies.

- You can use freezer paper, the advantage is that if you iron it on the fabric it will stay stuck long enough for you to either cut your pieces or cut the pieces and sew.

It is possible to buy packages that have already paper templates in them, those are Pre Cut Paper Packs (each pack contains a number of pre cut paper shapes for you to use), some companies will even have an acrylic template included with the paper piece pack which will allow you to make some more templates if needed.

2. Size

Making the templates from paper has a big advantage in the fact that you can draw any size you want. When preparing a template you should start by drawing the finished size of the piece you need and then draw the seam allowance.

3. Time

The fact of drawing your own templates is time consuming, depending of the project that you intend to make, you should consider the options that that exist: making your own templates, buying precut papers that are ready to use, or buying packages that are pattern orientated such as Grandma's Garden, Passacaglia, etc.

ACRYLIC TEMPLATES

1. Cost

Different models of templates are available on the market. You can either purchase individual shape templates or sets of several shapes depending of the project you are working on.

I personally use the Marti Michell templates. A wide range of Sets are available for general projects (to make traditional blocks made up of squares, rectangles, triangles) to very specific projects such as the Giant Dahlia or the Double Wedding Ring for which it isn't easy to draw the shapes by ourselves.

The templates have a cost more or less important depending of the quality of the template. The Marti Michell templates are in the high range of prices which can be justified by the quality of the products: very thick (a quarter inch) and can be used an infinite amount of times, there are no risk of breaking them if they are used properly.

2. Size

When using acrylic templates, you will have only certain sizes available, usually they are the standard used sizes in order to make blocks of 6 inches, 9 inches, 12 inches, etc.

When buying sets, they usually include all the templates that fit together and most of all they include the 1/4 inch seam allowance.

3. Time

Acrylic templates have one major advantage that they can be used over and over again, once you have a template apart from losing it you can't wear it out!!

The particularity of the Marti Michell templates is that you can cut up to 5 layers of fabric at once and they will all have the same shape.

The fact that the seam allowance is included, there are no calculations needed, the sets will have different sizes of shapes that are made to fit together. Therefore when using the 1/4 inch sewing foot on you sewing machine, all you will be doing is cutting out the shapes and sewing them back together.

Have a good week

Emmanuelle