8 At a Time Half-Square Triangles. How to Make Your Own Template.

In part 5 of Time to Bloom, we make a Carpenter’s Star block using an 8 at a time half-square triangle template.

Half square triangles or HSTs as their also known are basically a square with 2 triangles on opposite diagonal sides.

The advantage of a paper template is that it’s super accurate and will make perfect half-square triangles, the paper stabilises the fabric and prevents stretching when sewing on the bias grain and you’re not left with individual triangles to trim. This is the good news because the carpenters star is made up of 48 half-square triangles.

You can make your own 8 at a time HST template in any size, this is how you do it.

Start with the finished size half square triangle that you would like and add 7/8”.

So for a 2” finished HST, you would start with a 2 7/8” square.

Now put four 2 7/8” squares together with 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom.

Next mark a diagonal line from corner to corner.

And it’s a simple as that. If you’re tech savvy, you could draw this up on your computer and print it out onto A4 or letter size paper or you could mark it up by hand onto graph paper.

This is how it works:

Pin the template on top of 2 squares of fabric that are facing right sides together.

Stitch a scant ¼” away from both sides of the diagonal line.

Trim the outside of the square on the line.

Cut in quarters.

Cut both ways on the diagonal.

Press to the dark side.

Remove the paper and you have 8 perfect half square triangles.

So that’s the basics, you can watch the video here to get extra tips.

Happy quilting!

Monica and Alaura

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