TerryQuilter

O.k. Ladies, I want one of these, but every time I fold my fabric more than once I get wonky strips. What am I doing wrong?

irishrose

You need to have the folded edge lined up very straight with the edge of the ruler closest to you. Not a perfect 90 degrees is what causes the wonky vees in the strip.

Painiacs

Yep what Irish rose said! Make sure fabric is folded straight! Good luck! Looooove mine! You can send me yours if u hate it! Lmbo!

cheryl rearick

what is the shape cutter?

SEW

Irish Rose is quite right. I use the lines on my cutting mat to make sure the edge of my fabric is straight, then, I use the shape cutter to cut my strips. I will even line up the horizontal lines of the shape cutter to the horizontal lines of my cutting mat (below the fabric) to make sure the cut is accurate.

sewcrafty

You also need to make sure that your fabric is straight of grain. I fold it and let it sort of fold naturally and then square up my edge with new fold. Also, if doing more than one layer really smooth out, you don't want any bumps.

JenniePenny

Yes, I was going to say the same thing. When you are folding your fabric from selvedge to selvedge, it doesn't matter if the sides don't line up. They can be trimmed up later. Make sure that the top and bottom selvedges are lined up and your layers lay flat for your first fold. Then fold again. Flatten everything out. (I use my iron to do this.) My ironed fold is the baseline where I put the straight horizontal line on the June Tailor ruler. No wonky strips.

TerryQuilter

I thought I was folding the fabric pretty well, but I will be super diligent next time. Thanks to everyone for their advice. I love this board (even w/ all the probs lately) and you dear ladies and gents are the greatest :!:

Prism99

Basically the second fold has to be perfectly parallel to the first fold, and a black line on the Shape Cut has to line up perfectly with one of the folds. This ensures that the cuts will remain exactly 90 degrees from each fold.

To test the necessity for cuts to be exactly 90 degrees from the fold, take a piece of paper and fold it. Line up the fold with a line on the Shape Cut, cut a strip, and unfold to see how straight it is. Do the same thing again, except this time make sure that the line is a little "off" from being lined up with the fold. Cut, unfold the strip, and you will see the wonkiness near the fold.

froggy

didn't read the rest of posts, but I looovvve my shape cut!! please fold in half and kind of shake fabric to see where it wants to go. then fold again and do the same kind of shaking or wafting fabric back and forth. you might br upset by how much fabric you see on the edge, but believe me, when you trim the edge and then cut your strips you will be very pleased.