Dog ears, bunny ears, or triangle trims…
My friend LeeAnn is this sort of person: kind, smart, analytical, take-charge, open, wise, funny. So when LeeAnn says something, I listen up.
LeeAnn recently mentioned trimming the “dog ears” from half-square triangles.
“I don’t understand why everyone thinks you have to trim the dog ears. They don’t hurt anything. It’s just extra work to cut them off.”
This started me thinking about the dog ears: those tiny triangles—the seam allowance overhang, if you will—that appear when you make half-square triangles.
Dog ears are innocent enough when there are just a few, but here was my carpet when I did a big project recently:
I have always cut the dog ears off, but I can’t say exactly why. After LeeAnn’s comment, I thought about it long and hard. Know what I finally remembered?
Alex made me do it.
That’s right. When I had kids at home and did not have another full-time job, I watched every episode of Simply Quilts that I could. And Alex Anderson said to cut off the “bunny ears.”
Who was I to argue?
I went to the Bible of quiltmaking, Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! The Complete Guide to Quiltmaking by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes. What did these experts think?
There it is, right on page 104 of the Second Edition, in the section called Making Half-Square Triangles that begins on page 103. Number 8 says to “Trim the extensions and check the accuracy of the unit size.”
I’ve never heard them called extensions but hey, Diana and Laura’s book had sold more than 800,000 copies by the late ’90s, and I’ve never even written a book, so there you go.
By this time I was having fun and my curiosity was burning, so I pulled out Pat Sloan’s Teach Me to Sew Triangles. And with that I opened another can of worms, which is this:
Making half-square triangles larger than necessary and trimming them down.
That’s a topic for another post. But right on page 10, Pat Sloan has a plop-box called Dealing with Dog-Ears:
She says, “Notice how by trimming the triangle-squares to size, you’ve also trimmed off the ‘dog-ears.’ Removing them makes sewing multiple units together so much easier! So even if you don’t need to trim your units to a smaller size, be sure to cut off the dog-ears before assembling your quilt blocks.”
Hmm.
I checked one more source: Becoming a Confident Quilter by Elizabeth Dackson. This is an excellent book, written more recently (2013). And I find not one jot about the dog ears.
Perhaps modern quilt makers have bigger fish to fry? Are they trimming their dog ears or leaving them in place? If they’re not trimming, is the accuracy of their quilts in question?!
Oh my.
I have a big pile of quarter-square triangles waiting for me right now. I’m not even close to being finished—I need hundreds more. So it would save me a lot of time if I could just leave those dog-ears alone.
I’d like to know what you think. Let me know in the comments:
Do you trim off the dog-ears?
Why or why not?
I am seriously thinking about leaving them alone. Because honestly…
I think LeeAnn has a point.
Tags: alex anderson, bunny ears, diana mcclun, dog ears, helpful how-tos, quilt books, quilting 101
Elizabeth Brewer
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I’m on Team Trim. Those dog ears just add extra bulk to the seam allowance and could potentially get in the way as your trying to press.
Interesting that you’re questioning something that most of us take for granted. I wonder what other rules everyone knows that might not be actually necessary?
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Sarah
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Usually I cut them off, but occasionally some of them slip past me. They do add a little extra extra bulk into the seam, but it’s not too noticeable. So, maybe it should just be “each to his own”?
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Barbara Bennett
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Yes, I trim them. I prefer a clean edge. Any bulk or extra weight I can eliminate is a good thing. One dog ear isn’t much but just like having a seam be an 1/8″ off, it makes a difference on a big quilt. Especially on something like a Bonnie Hunter design.
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Ramona
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An interesting point! I’ve only been piecing for about 14 years. When I took a beginners class, the instructor said to clip them off and she put hers in a mason jar. I’ve been saving mine and now have a gallon jar crammed full of them. I think that’s a fun thing for me personally. 😉
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TAMMY JO ALLISON
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I absolutely love this idea. To see all the different kinds of fabrics you’ve quilted with, just shake the jar.
MARY L HEIDEMANN
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I trim the dog-ears. Makes them look nice and tidy!
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Sharon
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I’ve always trimmed the dog ears too. I still do, because I think it cuts down on the bulk in the seams. But now I usually do the over-sized blocks and trim down, as I like the accuracy of that method best. But if there’s only a few dog-ears and they won’t cause much bulk, I also feel free to ignore them if I want to!
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Nancy Arnoldy
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As a long-time longarm quilter (20 + years), trimming the dog ears leaves a less bulky, less messy intersection to stitch through. They tend to migrate and rotate and just generally throw the intersection off. And if you have a very light background, they can shadow through. I’m sticking with trimming them off.
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Quilter Kathy
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I’ve tried it both ways and decided I have to cut the dog ears… it’s just too bulky at the seam intersections if I don’t.
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Barb J Hinrichs
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I always trim them. I just like the neatness of them off. However, my sister and I made a quilt together several years ago. Half the quilt had the dog ears trimmed off and half didn’t. The quilt turned out fine.
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Jo Appleton
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Sure I cut them off… it’s a reduce-bulk-where-I-can thing. Why should I add more layers to the fabric “next door”?
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Jennifer Grist
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I have recently come across advice to leave the dog ears on if the squares are not to be trimmed down as they can be helpful when matching one square to another and give a guide as to where the quarter inch seam will be. I think that this means that cutting and piecing would need to be especially accurate. I have done much of my piecing sewing by hand as taught in the age of dinosaurs as Alex Anderson would say, and the dog ears often get left on unless I find they are creating too much bulk at joins.
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Diane B Paul
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They can get pulled down into the feed dogs of your machine so I always trim them.
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Marty
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Life is too short! If the dog ears don’t get in your way for the further construction, don’t trim! They may bother some people because they seem “untidy”. Your project seems too big to spend time trimming.
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Connie Olson
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I’m a trimmer!!
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Jan
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I trim most of the time. They can cause problems at the intersections and it looks nicer!!
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Kathy B.
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Dog ears cause a lot of problems if left on, like inaccuracy and catching in your 1/4″ foot. I always make my triangles a little large, then trim to size. This method has improved my accuracy greatly!
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Nancy E Striker
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I make my half-square triangles larger then trim to size.
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Vivian B.
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I got my start with Alex and Simply Quilts too! I think the reason that quilters who learned or were teaching in the 1980’s and early 90’s said to cut off the dog ears was because they were primarily hand quilters. As others have noted here, those dog ears represent extra bulk in the seam allowances which is not helpful if you quilt that way. Triangle Trimmers (Fons and Porter and Gudrun Erla both have them) and die cutters can help eliminate them during the cutting steps rather than after the piecing is done.
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Marty
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Always, always, always! My first ever quilt book, Quilts, Quilts, Quilts! My small quilt group in 1989 (aside from my Quilt Guild, Cabin Fever Quilter’s Guild, Fairbanks, AK) used Quilts, Quilts, Quilts for a year, from start to finish teaching a beginner back then how to quilt. As a longarming quilter, it reduces bulk in seams, esp 8-pointed stars and long star quilts to name just a few. Precision matters, and it assists with ironing seams also. Snip, snip, snip those dog ears is my vote!
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KarenAnn
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Messy is as messy does and untrimmed dog ears are just plain messy. A little time spent cleaning up each block…including trimming threads…is time well spent as you will surely live to regret it if you don’t. Extra bulk is a problem when it comes to quilting and see-through under light fabrics is too. Trim, trim, trim!
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