I was at Harriett Hargraves store in Denver a couple weeks ago and bought some fabric and was surprised when they "ripped" the fabric. Seems that's the way they cut their fabric. I did feel like I lost a bit that way as it does warp the threads a bit. But I remember when I took sewing in school (many many moons ago) that was the way we learned to straighten our fabric before we pinned our patterns on.