Conserving Fabric While Cutting - Tips?
 

Fabric is so expensive these days! I remember, not that long ago, I could get high quality, cotton, quilting fabric on sale for only $2.99/yard. Now, I'm lucky to find it at $5/yard and regular prices are way beyond my budget. I'm careful with every cut I make, so as to not waste any fabric unnecessarily. How do you make the most of the fabric while you are cutting pieces?

My tips:

-When cutting off chunks of fabric from a larger piece, I always measure first, so that I get just the right amount to make up a certain number of squares/pieces out of the piece.
-I always start cutting a folded strip of fabric from the unfolded edge and continue to cut towards the folded edge, so that if I have any leftovers at the end of the strip, there is a greater chance that I'll have some usable pieces left, once they are unfolded.
- I always trim off the selvedge first, so that I don't find it surprisingly in one of my squares, which I would then have to throw away.

~ C

When cutting various sizes try to cut the largest pieces first. Excess fabric from those strips can be used for smaller squares/strips

I have learned to fall in love with crumb quilting. it's a great way to use up all those small pieces you just can't stand to throw away

The first thing I do is make sure every piece is straight! I have less waste that way especially with strips where you can end up with humps that cannot be used. I cut my pieces as close to each other as possible. Now with my Accuquilt I am finding I have less waste. Those little pieces are are cut into pieces to be used with another DWR quilt and the pieces that are even smaller than that are now being collected for an animal rescue to make bedding for the animals. The larger pieces end up in my scrap baskets for future scrappy quilts. Nothing is wasted.

A couple times I have cut the wrong size strip and had to re-cut. Praying that I have enough. I would say engage your total focus while cutting and that way you won't waste any precious fabric.

If the strips are 1.5” or wider, I will sometimes sew them together to make bigger pieces of fabric.

If you need width of fabric strips for something and think you may need to buy more material for a project, check your fat quarters first. You can often cut strips and sew them together end to end to make a strip long enough and it won't ever matter that there is a little seam in there and you can often cut around it anyway, if you are sub-cutting the long strip.

Watson

I've seen older blocks that the pieces were pieced.

I do not like to do that - but if that's the only way to eke out a block - i will do that.

For conserving fabric - before buying it - I try to remember to check to see if it has been pulled off-grain. I really have to be in love with the fabric to buy off-grain fabric. If it is a print - has it been printed on-grain? Sometimes it has been printed on-grain, and been pulled off-grain. That can be straightened. If it has been printed off-grain - it is off-grain. Deal with it - or not.

I do "assume" about two inches of shrinkage per yard of fabric - I am not sure if it will be lengthwise or crosswise, but many fabrics have shrunk about that much. So - even though I am not "saving" by buying a couple of inches extra, I am building in "enough" - assuming the pattern is correct and I don't mess up.

If I actually know what I am going to be doing, I try to lay the fabric out and "survey" it before starting to cut - especially if working with something that needs to be fussy cut or is directional or has big pieces.

Maybe for me, the biggest "conserving" is to plan ahead - at least as well as I am able to.

I do this too. I don't buy expensive fabrics, nor do I use old clothes.

I have been known to use wide backing fabric to cut pieces. And the edges that are trimmed from the backing. And scrappy binding. And piece the back.

With an extensive stash, I seldom buy fabric any more. I did buy some Tula Pink for my Tula Pink, but it was on sale.

I save all of my scraps... sometimes I even sew them together. My one guild's challenge this year is strings... fortunately, I've saved lots of those

I don't know if anyone else did this before, but when I started quilting, I was using the thin plastic templates and scissors and I learned how to maximize my yardage. When I made the move over to rotary cutting, I applied what I learned from the plastic templates, and will practically play Tetris on my yardage when I'm cutting. Most of the time, the only waste I have are the selvages and the extra pieces from the odds and ends are usually too small to save for anything else.

I'm bad. I cut what pieces I need and push the rest of the fabric in a pretty blue metal laundry bin. When the bin gets full I give the fabric to anyone that needs it and start over. I rarely use from that bin so can't see a reason to keep it once full. I have made scrap quilts but I don't enjoy doing that so I stopped. I'm not that hungry in the fabric department yet.

I typically play fast and wild with my fabric, both with my scrappy style and although I started out being very precise, for the last 20 years or so I use the cut/sew large and trim down techniques and things like making HST out of full squares of fabric -- something I used to snort down my nose and derisively refer to as "fabric wasteful" techniques. When I started analyzing things I found I wasn't really wasting all that much fabric (sure, some!).

I will draw cutting layouts and figure out things like if it makes more sense for rectangles to be Up/down or side/side orientation. I have certainly pieced more than one piece because the fabric was less than I thought. Read the bolt ends and measure (I keep a tape measure in my purse), although I grew up when fabric was 44/45" I no longer count on anything more than 40" usable -- if I get more I'm happy but I've had enough projects made difficult because I really needed 42.5" or whatever it needed to be and just wasn't there.

When you are cutting right triangles, you can narrow down the strip width so that one point is already snubbed off, it you have enough rows that extra 1/4" can turn into an extra row.

Measure repeat times! You can only cut once... I keep a roll of 1/4" quilters tape in my kit and will often put a piece on my ruler to reinforce the cutting line and to help in my cutting accuracy.

While talking about only cutting once, it's something I'm working at which is replacing my rotary blade more often than I do. I try to buy on sale/in bulk but I still feel they are "expensive". But even a full price $5 blade is a lot less than cutting up $100-350 worth of fabric badly.

I haven't been able to afford quilt shop fabric for most of my life, so I've always bought the sales and clearance fabrics. I'm trying to not buy any fabric any more except what I have immediate need/plans for -- no more buying just because I like something. Most of what I do buy is from thrift stores, I go out on a regular basis/route and never know what I'm going to get or how much there will be, but at $1-3 per yard/bundle, I can get a lot and some days I do while other days I come home with nothing. My Seattle area is relatively affluent and I am able to find all the quilt shop brands, along with a lot of Concord VIP type fabrics. You find yourself a lot more open when the fabric isn't $12+ per yard.

I seldom buy fabric not on sale. It has to be very special for me to pay full price and by sale it has to be at least 40% off. I won't even consider 20% off sales, not good enough sale to buy something I really don't have to buy. I buy notions that are consumable in bulk as in sewing machine needles, thread, and blades. I buy neutral basic colors, white, muslin, black, and gray, by the bolt on sale or a coupon worth using. The key is finding a great sale and buy what you will need for the future and stop thinking I don't need any right now. If alive and sewing you will use it.

OnebyOne, I like your idea of buying whole bolts of solids on sale and with a coupon. I'm not so sure that I'd ever use the whole bolt though. Still, I'd probably find a way, if I had the fabric on hand. Can you recommend any places that offer good coupons and discounts from time to time?

~ C

I buy the majority of my fabric from Marshall's Dry Goods because it's close to me. I can buy bolts at wholesale prices (no tax ID needed). When I find Robert Kauffman solids at Hobby Lobby I use the 40% off coupon for the bolt. I like going to Marshall's as I can browse the warehouse and find 8 yard bolts. They only sell 20 or more yards per bolt online. I rarely shop at JoAnn's as their markup on fabric is way too much, even with coupon. I recommend buying name brand fabric from Marshall's. I will buy the MDG brad only if I can feel it first, some are a little too stiff for my liking and the colors seem dull but good quality fabric.

Wow...40% off Kauffman fabric is a good deal! I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled for coupons. I've never tried Marshall's Dry Goods, but will have a look-see. Thanks!

~ C

When I retired....and really started looking at all the fabric in my stash (much easier to buy fabric when I was working, much harder to actually use it) I really felt a bit distressed that I had put so much money into fabric rather then my "investment" plan....well....that has changed with the current price of fabric...turns out my fabric buying when I could afford it...was not such a bad investment. OK....the fabric is a bit dated....but....yikes ….some of the "modern" fabrics look a sneaky bit like some of my "vintage fabrics......I had also made a habit of always checking out the sale fabric at any of the quilt shops I went to....things I looked out for blender fabrics, fabric that would make a nice binding in a darker neutral color, clearance fabrics with enough yardage on the bolt for a backing.....so I do have a stash built up....and actually I think I have donated close to a 100 yards of fabric which was mostly bought a sale prices, to my church group who so far have made somewhere around 5000 masks.

I probably spend a lot more per yard buying pre-cuts but I love them and use them much more than yardage so it works out well for me. It takes me a lot longer to use up the yardage I have and that's usually for backings, etc.

This is really conserving while "buying". I have decided not to buy pre cuts anymore, especially jelly rolls and charm packs. I find the jelly rolls are not always accurate. I now only buy yardage. Usually half yards. And fat quarters. I will buy 10 " squares occasionally because they can be cut up into 2 ½ inch or five inch pieces. I save all scraps but don't cut them up until I have a project. My new go to are bags requiring 2 ½ inch strips or squares. Also, I save all batting pieces and fuse together. I just cut my own 2 ½ inch strips from batting cut off sides of quilts, etc. to use in a pocket book I am making. Or table runners. I shop from my own stash but do not limit myself to it if I have a new project.

Using the Easy Angle triangle and the EA Companion triangle uses this idea. For a 2" finished triangle cut a 2 1/2" strip and use the ruler to cut your HST..I like it because I can utilize evenly cut leftover strips for triangles.

I have problems buying precuts too. From my experience using them in the LQS, is that there are a certain number of pieces you don't use and off they go into a scrap pile.

I conserve by saving all my scraps and using them for something else. A large leftover piece can be used for a yoke and pockets in a little girl's dress. When most of the piece is gone I cut 5" squares and 2.5" squares. Those are stored by size, and used later for scrappy quilts.

I also determine how many cuts I can get from each fabric for the pattern I'm working on. Then I cut the amount I think I'll need plus a couple inches more as I always starch and then press the fabrics so I know it will shrink a little plus it might not have been cut straight at the store. I'm OCD when working on a pattern. I write down how many strips from each fabric plus how many cuts from each strip on a piece of scratch paper. Every page that comes out of my printer if it has a blank side, it becomes scratch paper. I cut that into 4 pieces evenly. As I get all the cutting done, I check mark along side it. Borders, sashings, bindings, everything. I told you I'm OCD and this shows it.........lol.