Sewing the strips to the panel

The strips were sewn together in pairs, with the raw seams to the front, and then the shorter strips were pinned and sewn to the top of the duck panel. To reduce bulky seams I pinned the seams, of each square, in opposite directions. This also makes it easier to align the rows. When I sewed the side strips on I found that they were too long. If I sewed them on as they were then the squares wouldn't line up with the top rows of squares. So, I pinned the squares to match the top strip's squares and then along the sides of the panel I pinned the extra material over at the seams as I sewed. It was a little bit puckered along the seams but I just eased them along so they were less noticeable.