Originally Posted by
GrannieAnnie
How does cutting across the grain cause stretch? Or am I misunderstanding what you are saying? On the bias??
Cross cut or fabric cut from selvedge to selvedge egde has more stretch then cutting paralel to the selvedge edge. It can be problematic when working with long lenghts of strips, such a borders of a single fabric, long skinny block units and many binding issues can come from cross cut fabric.
I do many quilts that have multiple borders, and having a mix in particular .. a skinny narrow cross cut next to a lenghtwise grain border .. the cross cut will never seem to lay quite as flat as the lenghtwise cut. I do have to "mix " my cuts as sometimes it just not as effiecient use of fabric ... but every time there is a noticeable difference in the "mixed" edges . Starch does help in reducing the stretch while working on the project ...
Bias edge or a diagonal cut at an angle across the weave will produce the most stretch.
Batiks because of the tight weave do not stretch nearly as much as regular cottons on the cross cut. Test yourself .. take a piece of fabric and try to stretch pulling on the parallel to the fabric then same fabric pull across .