Guide to English Paper Piecing

For those who want to start English Paper Piecing, this post will have all the guide for you. It will be linked to all the tutorials and the fun English Paper Piecing patterns.

What is English Paper Piecing?

English paper piecing (EPP) is another wonderful technique for making patchwork quilts. Piecing together fabrics using a paper template. The technique is mainly hand-stitched but there are some ways you can piece the pieces together with a machine too.

In general, these templates are basted with the fabric to form the shape of the fabric pieces before piecing the pieces together. This technique allows an easier and more accurate way to piece together various shapes of fabrics.

One of the popular EPP patterns is the Hexagon flower.

You can make these popular beautiful hexagon flowers and make bigger ones simply by adding more rounds.

And the shapes are not only limited to hexagons. You can see more patterns at the end of this post with more variation of EPP.

There are affiliate links within this post where I may earn a commission from the links, please find my full disclosure here.

What is the difference between paper piecing and English paper piecing?

Paper piecing technique is another technique often used in making patchwork quilts. Though the term may seem similar. It is totally a different technique. Paper piecing technique or may also be known as foundation paper piecing (FPP) is similar in terms of using paper as a template but it is done differently.

You can see this post here to see an example of foundation paper piecing. The photo below is an example of Foundation Paper piecing. You can read more about the project HERE>

Do you remove the paper in English paper piecing?

Yes! Unless you use one of the wash-away fusible as the templates. But, since we’re talking about papers here – then the answer is YES. We do have to remove the paper at the end of the process.

Make sure the paper is only removed once all the sides that need to be stitched to another piece are completed. If you remove it too early, it will be difficult to sew the pieces together.

How do you make an English paper piecing template?

There are many ways to make or buy templates. But in simple terms, just cut the papers into shape. You can find how to cut EPP templates efficiently in this post HERE>.

You can also buy laser cut to precision EPP templates in various shapes! Check them out HERE>