Sewing a quarter of an inch isn’t always a quarter of an inch. If you get 10 of your friends to get together and sew a quarter inch seam using your quarter inch seam foot, it’s very likely that only a few will actually be a real quarter of an inch (that’s 6mm if you are working in metric). If you are sewing a casual patchwork project then it doesn’t really matter, but if you are doing a project that depends on the maths being right, then you should measure your seam.

• Take a piece of paper and with a ruler measure in from the edge a quarter of an inch and mark it with a fine line.
• Now, pop the paper under your sewing foot with the edge of the paper butted naturally to the guide of the quarter inch foot (or if you don’t have a quarter inch foot, align the paper with the right edge of your everyday sewing foot) and identify the line that you have drawn.
• Adjust the width of your sewing machine’s straight stitch until the needle now lines up with the marking on the paper (some machines have a needle position adjustment instead of using width)
• Note this new setting for future use and now you will be sewing an actual quarter of an inch seam or if you have a computerised machine, you might be able to save this stitch so it is this setting every time you turn it on.