June Tailor Joins AccuQuilt

If you’re not familiar with June Tailor, Inc., they were established in 1961 by founder and namesake June Tailor. June was a real person named June Kroenke, who legally changed her name to June Tailor after she invented the Tailor Board®.

The Tailor Board debuted in 1961 and was a curious-looking hardwood apparatus that had twelve different pressing surfaces for curves, angles, points, crisp edges and a flat surface to press challenging seams in garment construction. It was sold in McCall’s Magazine, at Nancy’s Notions™ and at many independent sewing shops across the country for under $2. With the heat of an iron and the handy Tailor Board, pressing during garment construction resulted in beautifully sewn clothing with professional finished results.

June loved pressing and educated many sewists on the advantages and importance of proper pressing when sewing or quilting. With the success of the Tailor Board, June continued to develop and add pressing notions to her product line, including a double-sided sleeve board, an array of pressing cloths, clappers, and tailoring hams. She also wrote a book, Custom Detail Pressing, with pro tips for new and experienced seamstresses.

In the 1980’s, she noticed a shift in the industry with fewer garment sewers and more people interested in quilting. She began to research and develop innovative cutting and pressing tools. Her signature hard surface cutting mats have rule markings outside the cutting grid, are easy on blades, won’t warp and have a carrying handle for portability and storage. She also developed several gridded pressing surfaces, with the most popular being the Cut ’n Press™, which allows you to cut on one side, flip the board over and press on the other side. This was sadly June’s last innovation as she passed away from pancreatic cancer in November 1993.

To continue June’s mission, Jill Repp was brought on board in 1994. She picked up right where June left off and designed tools, notions and other products to help quilters complete projects with professional finished results. Jill even designed the first slotted ruler ever to be introduced to the marketplace, the Shape Cut™ ruler.

Innovation continued with the development and introduction of ink jet printable fabric sheets, both sew-in and fusible. This product expansion added a fun element to the June Tailor product line, allowing the sewist to add photos, graphics and text to quilts and quilted projects. Projects could then be customized and personalized with ease.

More recently, the June Tailor Design Team developed and introduced a completely new process for quilting called Quilt As You Go™, which uses a sew-by-number system. Instead of using traditional quilting steps (sew a quilt top, layer with batting and backing and then quilt through all layers), the Quilt As You Go system completes the entire process in one step.

Here's how it works:

• A pattern is printed on quilt batting.
• Backing fabric is attached to the non-printed side of the batting with a glue stick or quilt basting spray.
• Pieces are sewn on top, through all three layers, following the numbered design.

Using the sew-by-number system is easy for beginners or kids just learning to sew and quick for those with more sewing or quilting experience. June Tailor has over 100 designs using this printed batting Quilt As You Go format, from tote bags and placemats to table runners and quilts. There are even designs for your furry friends!

Zippity-Do-Done™ pre-sewn zippers were introduced in 2021 as a great solution for those who want to add a zipper to a quilted project or home decor item. Simply tuck one side of your project into one side of the casing of a Zippity-Do-Done zipper and straight stitch on the edge. Repeat with the other side and the zipper is installed! Adding a zipper to a project is now as easy as sewing a straight line, and, best of all, no zipper foot is required.  

Sash-in-a-Dash™ is a similar type of two-sided casing and is an easy and innovative way to join quilted blocks. No need to send quilts to a longarm service! Simply quilt your blocks and insert one block into each side of the Sash-in-a-Dash casing, straight stitch the edges of the casing on both sides and your blocks are joined. Once the blocks are joined, use longer pieces of Sash-in-a-Dash to join rows. This is a great method to join t-shirt quilt blocks as well.

All these projects have one thing in common - they start with cutting fabric. The more precisely the fabric is cut, the better the end result, or, as we like to say at AccuQuilt, “better cuts make better quilts®.” Many of AccuQuilt’s fabric cutting dies work perfectly with June Tailor Quilt As You Go designs. Quickly cut strips, squares and triangles with your AccuQuilt GO!® Fabric Cutter and get right to the fun part of sewing. With many projects based on standard fabric pre-cut sizes, like 2 1/2” Width of Fabric (WOF) strips, it’s easy to see how these products pair up perfectly.

Embellishing your Quilt As You Go projects with some of AccuQuilt’s many applique dies is an easy way to elevate a project and make it unique. From seasonal dies, like the GO! Pumpkins and GO! Holiday Medley Dies, to popular decor themes, such as the GO! Llama, GO! Gnome and GO! Pickup Dies, there are applique dies for any occasion and theme. Truly everything you need to create wonderful projects from beginning to end can now be found in one place – just add fabric and GO!

With AccuQuilt’s quick and precise cutting and June Tailor’s innovative Quilt As You Go system, you can make beautiful one-of-kind quilted projects and more in no time at all. Watch for more information on how to use all these exciting products together in blogs and livestream events as we explore the possibilities together!