So I have charm squares and rather than a straight rotary cut, they are cut with what my mom called a fabric scissors, but so it makes it so you get a bunch of little triangles on the edges (we know what I mean, right?). And the 5" is measured from a point to a point, so some of the nonexistent cut out fabric is included in that.

Why are they cut that way??? I like straight edges! Much easier to work with. There must a reason, since it's a common practice... so I was wondering if any of you know.

I was wondering that EXACT thing about my layer cakes just yesterday. Unfortunately I do not have an answer. I have never used anything that was cut that way before so im not even sure how to start lol.

My guess would be that they are cut with pinking shears type dies so that there is not the unraveling that you would get from a straight cut. Withthe pinking cut, you only get the little triangles coming apart and still keep the majority of the fabric, as there is no way that all of those little triangles are coming apart enough to cause the actual square to come apart. I know that is why pinking shears are used on clothing.

That makes sense. When cutting them up do you cut from the points on the edge?

It keeps the fabric from raveling and I agree that it is annoying (the size issue, not the raveling)

I think the squares are cut that way to avoid fraying. The scissors are called pinking shears. Obviously the fabric companies die cut them, but they are "pinked."

What they said. I use my pinking shears now and then and like the look. It really does cut down on the fraying and strings.

I recently had a lady that owns a fabric shop tell me that "charm packs"
were orginally what was (and still are) sent to the store owner to show the new line of fabric a company had and what they ordered from. She showed me a pack she had just recieved and there was a card on the back
that had numbers and that was what you ordered by. The numbers were in the order that the fabric was stacked, so she told me if I took one piece out to be sure I put it back in the same place so the fabric and the numbers would match up.

The were pinked on the edge so they would not fray.

Okay, but most of my fabric doesn't fray that much. I lose a few lines of threads, maybe a few more on a bad day, but this is essentially helping me to lose all those little triangles.

I made the mistake of using those in my border (thankfully only in 2 spots), and I had to re-sew over the binding 3-4 times because I kept catching the fabric ends but not the inner triangle stuff.

Give me slightly frayed squares over missing fabric any day :D

I use charms alot and just line up my straight cut fabric with the tips of the points. It works fine but would rather have a straight cut.