Let's talk about grain and off-grain.
 

I was just reading about someone's bad experience with fabric shrinking and it got me thinking about the grain of fabric and how I haven't seen a topic on straightening fabric with the grain. I know some of you tear fabric to straighten but I'm not comfortable doing that. I try to match selvage to selvage and see if my fold is flat and if not straighten it from there. But as I do this sometimes I can see the design run crooked. Do I straighten by design or the fold? Batiks when straightened by fold are almost always very wavy at the selvages. How do you know when the grain is straight?

Not comfortable with tearing either...but..have to admit...nearly the only way to know for sure...i find stamped fabric off, at times, also...great post! Will watch the opinions ! Thanks!

There is no way to tell if the fabric is 'on grain' unless it is torn. Tearing always goes along one thread.... all the way across. You can cut all you want but the 'one' thread won't happen. And you can't tell if that 'one' thread lines up when you have cut lines going across lots of different threads. Why would anyone be afraid of tearing their fabric? It's a good thing if having 'true grain' is the desire.

Prints aren't always printed 'on grain'. So, even if your fabric is truely 'on grain', the print might not be. I really suspect the grain if the print is off because that usually means that the fabric is stretched crooked when it goes through the printing process.

So, 'true grain' is super important when you are making clothes because you want the skirt to be even, etc., but when I cut small pieces for quilts, it's not that important. You will have lots of small pieces with the threads going all directions, especially with paper piecing, etc. I'll watch to see what others think about grain..... when I taught sewing years ago I always had students get their fabric in grain..... for clothes..... but I don't think it's important for pieced tops.

I agree that the fabric grain is most important in garment and some home dec projects, like curtains. The sewn item needs to be on grain or it will not hang right. It's a bit less important with a pieced quilt because of all the small pieces. The only way to get the grain is to tear it or pull one or two threads, which is hard with cottons. I tear to get the straight of grain, but as I've read in numerous quilting books, pattern rules all. So if the pattern is printed off grain, and the quilting patches are big enough where the 'off' print will br noticeable, I ignore the grain and cut the pieces aligned with the print.

The system recommended by those using the cutting machines is to hold the selvedges together and move right and lift until the fold is even. This appears to work in most cases. However, if pattern is important in cutting your pieces then the fabric should be lined up with the pattern even if it is slightly off grain. When I cut strips on the cutting machine I always tare the fabric, line the edges up with selvedge and use the steam iron to gradually work the grain in line. As indicated above, grain is not necessarily that important in cutting some patchwork shapes. Off grain is usually made when the fabric is refolded in manufacturer's folding machines and is especially caused when long lengths of fabric are stitched together. If that cut is not reasonably straight then all the fabric folded after that point is crooked. I have seen this at the manufacturers. I think it is better to grit your teeth (so to speak) and tare the fabric to make sure it is on grain.

I have an old quilt - probably 1940's or so that is a nine patch with triangles on each side. It was obviously made from left over garment making. Some of the squares are made by piecing fabric together to make the base fabric large enough for the square. Some squares are made of strips and plaids and the piecing is off grain, wonky and mismatched......I love the quilt and it has certainly held up all these years.....

I will pull a couple of threads, cut with scissors along the pulled line, then if the fold line is not straight to the weave of the fabric, I will stretch along both bias until I am satisfied. I have spent more than an hour getting a piece of fabric straighten up along the grain when it has been stretched and put on the bolt crooked. If patterns have straight lines in their designs that are printed off grain you've pretty well lost the game and might just as well give up getting cuts along the SOG. Use that pattern for a fussy cut.

I worked for almost two years in a shop that did custom dressmaking and alterations. I saw first hand how important grain was in sewing. I was a quilter before that job and have been for at least 25 years since. I tear any strips I need and most of the fabric I use in my many Linus quilts. It is obvious that stores like Joanns must wind their bolts with the fabric either still damp or deliberately crooked. It helps to straighten up the fabric if you remove the selvages and steam press it. It is true that many prints are stamped off grain. Since I am not willing to pay $14.95 a yard for Linus quilts I will just have to cope. Cutting fabric straight even with the best rotory cutter and mat is almost impossible if the fabric is wider than your total reach in one sweep.

Last Sunday, I pulled my shoulder trying to straighten a designed squarish print from Kaufman's new oriental line. It was only a half yard cut but it took over 2 hours of pulling on the bias in both directions and twisting, steaming and pressing to get the grain and pattern lined up enough to do the strips for Eleanor Burns Quick Trip around the World Quilt. Since there were rectangles cut of each of the 9 fabrics, it was very important for the designs to line up correctly. I should have thought about that before I purchased the fabric. We wer suppose to have all our strips cut before class last Monday. But I hurt my shoulder so badly on fabric 2 strips I couldn't cut anymore. We had a certified Eleanor Burns instructor, I just went Monday and told her I would just observe and help anybody that needed it since I hurt my shoulder and couldn't cut my strips. That instructor volunteered to cut my strips and sent me home to get the ones I had cut and my machine. I live less than 3 miles from the class. I could sew, I just couldn't bear down and cut with the rotary cutter.