pre-wash and starch---a light spritz of starch-press, spritz again...a couple light layers of starch are better than one heavy layer...then line it up very carefully on your cutting mat and line your ruler up with the 1/4" line along one of the lines of the plaid and cut...(doing it this way gives you the straight line of the fabric to follow when you sew---helping with that whole...straight thing :)