I was taught to get the straight of grain this way.......

Fold the fabric selvage to selvage. Then hold it out in front of you. If there is a distinct bump or fold along the folded edge, then manipulate the selvage edges by scooching them along, one in one direction and the other in the other direction, until the fold disappears and the fabric lays flat. Then even off the cut the edges with a ruler and a rotary cutter.

Works every time!

You can loose more fabric if the fabric is cut off grain at the store. To get the fabric to lie flat, I pull from opposite ends and corners (on the bias) until the fabric lies flat when folded selvege to selvege. But in the end, it is all about personal preference.

I'm a ripper !!

I do for borders. Its just easier or if I am making something like dog crate covers. Measure Rip, Measure , Rip. I have a rectangle the right size. Its so much easier than trying to cut the right size. Backing if I have to piece one, rip. Sometimes if I am really lazy I will rip strips for sashings just a little wider then cut them even. I find I don't get that V in the middle like I do if I cut from the bigger piece. And I have starched Ironed straightened smoothed till I am blue in the face and still get the V.
I have always ripped , I think because I use to work in a fabric shop long,long ago that had the measuring machines that clipped , then we tore.

I always wash my fabric - cause I am allergic to some of the chemicals on it - fold and cut. If you fold it right, it lines up perfectly. take selvedge edges together, and you can see how the fold will lay, if it lays straight, it should be on grain. I really really hate ripping fabric, it makes the edges stretch and get fuzzy

I think it's a waste of time and a waste of fabric. When the quilting is done, there will be no movement or distortion, as the quilting will hold everything in place, and there was probably no problem anyway.

The only time I rip fabric is when I need to do a backing and insert a piece in the middle, so do rip then and also the selvages off....

i am 72 was taught to rip by my home ec teacher in 7th grade and still do it but i doubt we had rotary cutters then

The only time I tear fabric is for my backings. I find it stretches too much for piecing. And with rotary cutters, I don't fuss over grain anymore.

I was getting my backing fabric ready last night and thought I would rip it to get a straight edge. Well I learned a lesson, 1st you need to rip one edge, then measure and rip the other end. I didn't rip the 1st edge and my fabric was way off. Ended up having to cut some off the border of quilt, because I did not want to piece my backing.

oohhhhhhhhhhh, nooooo, hugs and all but that does not give you straight grain.....saw a lady doing this once with a woven check (yarn dyed) and when she was going to cut it she was about to cut diagonally across a square.......we had a friendly discussion about straight of grain and have been sewing friends ever since.

ok this was a reply to an earlier comment about lining up selvages....sorry, this was to the lady in Canada...

Very good question. This has never seemed a big issue to me either.

Not only do I RIP....I prewash it! that helps bring it back into alignment as well...and if it is off grain, it will really show after it is washed..

I iron it after I rip...so that the edges are not rough.

as a side note..it gets off grain when it is printed....that is why sometimes you can not get it on grain/straight no matter what you do...

I find that if I RIP the strips for sashings/borders, and then trim them to size, they will generally lie flatter and be truer to size!

not FUSSING with grain just means you run the potential of getting blocks that do not lie flat, puckers when you try to quilt them, and when it is quilted will wave like a flag in OK....

there is a reason some things are done! Believe it or not, there is a sort of SCIENCE to sewing/quilting/working with fabric in general!

I had never heard of this till I joined this board, but find it interesting because sometimes trying to line up the grain is a pain.

When you rip it are you ripping from salvage edge to salvage edge?

Yes, I rip mine to straighten the grain. Fabric is woven with it like you would see in a weaving loom.
First, I pull it from corner to corner to help straighten, then if still not straight, I rip it to get it straight.
The reason this is important to me, is because as your projects are completed, the corners will all match and you won't have to worry about seeing corners that don't match.
If the fabric is of the kind that ripping isn't possible, I pull a thread.
All of these statements I learned from my Mom, who was quite a seamstress, and also from my h.s. sewing teacher, and more recently from our guild.
Mariah

Yes, indeed.

to rip or pull a thread you make a small clip in the selvedge. I often make this several inches from the raw edge because the removed portion will have a new straight edge and can be used to cut smaller pieces.

I not only rip when i am getting ready to cut fabric for quilts....in order to get a straight line i also rip when i am making simple curtains....its easy to measure the panels as well..

I do rip my fabric to get the straight of grain. Then I follow up with my ruler and rotary cutter to get a clean edge along the straight of grain. My fabric is now on grain with no distortion from ripping.

I pull a thread, it is quick to do this, and cut along the line you can see, then pull hard on the fabric diagonally, the shortest distance, to get it square. Sometimes it takes two people for yardage~ Once you have done this, it will stay square! Pulling a thread does not distort the edges like tearing does.

It is not putting it on the bolt that distorts it... It is the lengths of fabric whizzing around on the factory machinery that does it! Often the ink is printed on distorted fabric, and then the best you can do is ignore it and cut it sort of the best you can.

I don't rip because a lot of the printed designs are no printed on the straight grain and if you rip, the grain will be right, but the design is all lopsided.

My mother taught me to rip properly (mumblemumble) years ago. There's a knack to it. You make a nick in the selvage, then rip with a very quick, fast pull. No hesitations or stopping!

It's like the trick of pulling the tablecloth out from under a table setting. If you go fast enough, the tablecloth slides right out from under the flatware and silverware but if you pull too slowly or hesitate, the dishes fall off the table.

If you rip the fabric with a slow motion or in a succession of jerks, you will pull the warp and weft off grain. If you do it really fast, the warp and weft threads snap where they are, rather than sliding out of place and then breaking.

PS--in the case of the tablecloth trick, it also helps to have heavily starched the tablecloth first, so it is as smooth and slick as possible. Practise with just silverware on the table until you can do it perfectly with just silverware before adding any dishes.

I rip depending on the project and the mood I am in. My Mama taught me this method when I was young. I still like it too. I also have pulled a thread and cut.

I have been ripping for years (and years and years).

When I started to quilt after making clothes for many years I figured I did not need to do it (sigh). After a couple of quilts with wavy borders I went back to ripping. I will pull threads for smaller pieces, but I am too lazy to do that for border strips.

That said, some fabrics do not rip well -- then I do pull a thread. I have yet to find border print or striped fabric that is completely on grain so I opt to go with the pattern in those cases.

I do if I'm getting ready to cut borders or other long strips. Not so much if I'm cutting little pieces for blocks. Too, it depends on how off-grain the fabric is. Most quality fabrics from the LQS are pretty much on-grain these days.

Fold the fabric selvage to selvage. Then hold it out in front of you. If there is a distinct bump or fold along the folded edge, then manipulate the selvage edges by scooching them along, one in one direction and the other in the other direction, until the fold disappears and the fabric lays flat. Then even off the cut the edges with a ruler and a rotary cutter.

Works every time![/quote]

This is the way I find the grain too. I even use the same technical word "scooching" :lol:

That I can do !!!

Tearing the fabric does not straighten the fabric...it gives you a crosswise thread at each end of the piece. Then, you have to stretch the fabric to line up those ends and the selvage edges in order to straighten the fabric. In making garments, cutting a piece off-grain will end up with a piece that doesn't hang straight. Or, if a curtain is cut off-grain, it will hang crooked.

Tearing works for most plain-weave fabrics. When the fabric won't tear, you pull a thread and cut along it to find the grain. Grain refers to the length-wise (warp) and cross-wise (woof) threads. When they get off-grain on the bolt and you cut across, you are cutting across several threads...not along the weave of one thread.

Nope, hardly ever. Tearing can damage a thread 3-5 inches within. Grain is easy to see in most cases and I have vision damage! I do what poster "Olivia's Grammy" does. When it absolutely does not seem right, I tear - and usually find that the fabric was PRINTED off grain.

I rip. I cant seem to cut straight even with a ruler :|

Yes I do then I press and fold and trim the brused end. I am a stickler for cutting on grain... just me.. I think part of this is from being a garment sewist.
ConnieF

sometimes i do depends on my project because oftewn times i barely have enough :-D

I have heard of it and had one teacher demonstrate the ripping. However, I don't - if it's good enough for Fons & Porter, Eleanor Burns, Alex Anderson, my LQS teacher - it's good enough for me.

At a shop hop, one of the stores did rip the fabric. I thought all the bolts looked funny with strings hanging out!

I remember that well. We had a store in New Orleans called Krauss which was family owned and almost an entire floor of the store was dedicated to fabric. They measured using a machine that they passed the fabric through with a dial for the yardage and a lever that made a small cut - then they ripped at the yardage point you were purchasing. The fabric was never as off as the fabric is today as almost all fabric is cut instead of ripped. I usually rip if I have enough fabric.

You have to take hold of opposite corners and strech the fabric to square it up after you rip it - USUALLY. I have been doing this since I was in 7th grade (1952) and took my first sewing class and has always worked for me.
Take care.
Linda

thanks

You did a much better explanation than me, Craftybear,. Take care.
Linda

fabric today ALMOST never comes to you at a 90* angle. if you rip, you'll go on grain, but it won't necessarily be on square to the selvedge. ripping also weakens the fabric around the tear further sideways out than you would think at first glance.

as a dressmaker, i was also taught to rip. as a quilter, i don't think it's important, as long as the bias pieces, such as curves, are on bias.

today we quilt the pieces down enough to hold everything in place. and by starching, we have good control of the fabric, in fact, better control than ripping and then not using starch.
if you look at antique quilts, you'll see that grain was not as important as getting the most out of all the fabric, and they held up well.

why is this so important in today's world? if you really want to construct a quilt as they were made originally, you would have to put away your featherweights and get out your thimbles.

I bought some fabric 90" wide. The quilt shop owner told me to rip it before I started cutting strips so they would be even. I did some and a couple I did not and the fabric was wavy on the ones I did not rip. I will rip to even all my fabric now. I do not need to waste strips.