Tearing fabric
04-16-2014, 05:35 PM
#41
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: SC
Posts: 2,027
I remember the measuring machines also! Hadn't thought of the forever !! I rip! Best way to get true straight of the grain. When they cut fabric at stores now, it usually isn't straight and you lose fabric and money... imho
04-16-2014, 06:47 PM
#42
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: League City, Texas, USA
Posts: 625
My quilt shop still tears the fabric. I do too if I have a lot of fabric and want to get it down to manageable size for cutting. I have to agree that there is something very satisfying about that ripping noise. I also love the little pop I hear when I seat the knot when I am hand quilting.
04-16-2014, 07:02 PM
#43
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Central Florida
Posts: 830
Not only do I remember So-Fro stores, I remember the thingy you measured fabric with because I worked in one part-time in the late 70's and early 80's. I probably ran thousands of yards of fabric through the "clock", but I got a great discount so it fed my habit as a garment sewer at the time. I made all my daughter's clothes back then and paid so little for fabric - $1.98 a yard was "expensive"! :-)
04-16-2014, 08:08 PM
#44
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Nevada
Posts: 6,958
OK...just for the record....I AM NOT OLD AS DIRT...LOL. I too, remember those measuring thingys with the dial that went round and round as the clerk pulled the fabric through it and then snipped it. The cottons that I bought were always snipped on that machine and then ripped. The clerk usually added a couple of inches for, "good measure." I also loved those brass, grooved insets on the cutting table that helped the clerk to make sure that the other types of fabrics were cut straight. I'd love to have one of those, "groovy," things in my own sewing table.
Oh...and as for your question, yes, you can rip both ways and it will leave nice, straight, edges. Just be sure that your print pattern isn't off, as fabrics are not always printed exactly on grain.
~ Cindy
Oh...and as for your question, yes, you can rip both ways and it will leave nice, straight, edges. Just be sure that your print pattern isn't off, as fabrics are not always printed exactly on grain.
~ Cindy
04-16-2014, 08:33 PM
#45
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Grants Pass, Oregon
Posts: 3,360
Cheshire, I'm older than dirt too- guess one could say I'm a fossil, because I remember when fabric was seldom cut by the clerks. Now even with a groove in the cutting table, most clerks cut the fabric crooked, and I think so much of the fabric is rolled onto the bolts crooked to begin with.
04-16-2014, 08:57 PM
#46
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: S. W. Indiana
Posts: 7,484
04-18-2014, 02:10 AM
#47
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Rancho Cordova, CA
Posts: 451
I remember when those nip-and-rip devices came into use as the new and wonderful improvement, but I don't think I'm very old! Since they would only work effectively on tightly woven cottons, of course they became obsolete when perma-press and polyester double knits became so popular. It was even difficult to find 100% cotton fabrics for many years, until quilting came back into vogue.
As for ripping, I spent a while trimming scraps into blocks at my last Linus Project group meeting, and those ripped edges on some pieces were downright annoying! I've tried ripping a few times in recent years and was always disappointed in the way the fabric seemed to end up crooked anyway, since it had been printed on skewed griege goods and wrapped still another way on the bolt, and no amount of pulling, washing, wetting, stretching or ironing would put "humpty dumpty" back together again.
As for ripping, I spent a while trimming scraps into blocks at my last Linus Project group meeting, and those ripped edges on some pieces were downright annoying! I've tried ripping a few times in recent years and was always disappointed in the way the fabric seemed to end up crooked anyway, since it had been printed on skewed griege goods and wrapped still another way on the bolt, and no amount of pulling, washing, wetting, stretching or ironing would put "humpty dumpty" back together again.
04-21-2014, 11:29 AM
#48
Super Member
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 7,741
I do, like Penney's, Sears, Payless, etc. Actually, it wasn't all that long ago, it was when I was raising my kids...
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