DIY Pattern Weights

Pattern weights are awesome.  I never knew how they were made until recently.  I had originally thought people painstakingly wrapped fabric around the edges of the washer, thru the inside, like wrapping a hula hoop w/ tape.  What the hell are they?  Well, they're small weighted pieces you can place on top of your pattern paper when cutting.  They are really useful for rotary cut items and are so much faster than pins.

Here's how I made mine.

I went to Home Depot and looked for the largest washers I could find.  It might take a while to find these, so ask someone if you can't find the big ones.

Cut out circles of fabric.  I'm not really quite sure how big these circles are.  I used flannel to give light padding and to make it a little more non-skid.  Just trace around your washers, giving enough seam for the width of the radius.  This gives enough room for the fabric to wrap around the edges and meet in the middle.  Doesn't make much sense, me trying to explain it, so hopefully the pics will help.

Hand-sew a running stitch all the way around the edges.  Place the washer in the center and pull the thread tightly.  

 I ended up stitching thru close to the original stitching line, reinforcing it before I knotted.

You can use more than one washer, or mix 2 washers of different sizes.