Paperless, stand-alone hexies

All you people doing hexies might want to know about this. 

I was looking for another hand project to do as I travel or even on our zoom days. Last week I was watching a YouTube video (not about hexies) and put two and two together.

I wanted to make some stand-alone hexies so that I could sew them together as a string of pearls rather than tessellated. So here  is what I've done and it works.

• For a hexagon with 1" sides cut a 2.5" square of the desired fabric and a 2.5" square of a fine backing fabric like muslin or something similar. The squares can be any shape as long as there is at least a 1/4" seam allowance beyond the finished hexie.
• Lay them together right side to right side then trace a hexagon shape on the muslin side in pencil or biro.
• Stitch along the line in small running stitch or machine stitch. Make sure the corner stitches are strong. A small back stitch at each corner would reinforce them even more.

• When the stitching is finished trim the excess fabric off to 1/4" from stitch line.
• Use a sharp pair of pointy scissors to cut a hole in the muslin side.

• Turn inside out and finger press the edges using a point to make the corners sharp.

• Press the stand-alone hexie carefully and hey presto!

You can use these hexies in the normal way and top stitch them together along the sides or stitch them together as a chain, joining them together at the points. No having to remove the papers or stitch through paper or card.

You can even applique them to something with quilting stitches around the inside edge.

Hexies like this could be used in projects like this...

This is not my project. I photographed it on a trip to Berry with some other quilters. If you know who made it please let me know via the comments below and I will acknowledge the maker.