Straight of Grain
 

I am at a loss as to how to get my fabric on the straight of grain. I have torn the edges but if I put selvages together the edges do not meet. I need a yard of the fabric but if I keep cleaning the edges I will loose some of that yard.

I need help The fabric is on my cutting surface and I need to get started in completing this part of the Project

Why do you need straight of grain? Are you cutting strips? Or are you cutting squares/rectangles? Depending on the fabric (Kona cottons are terrible for fraying if they are cut on the straight of grain) I will match the selvedge edges and not worry that the grain is not perfect. If the fabric has a specific print that reads up/down, I go with the print and forget about straight of grain completely.

If you need WOF strips, you can match the selvedge edges, but make sure that your ruler is absolutely perpendicular at the FOLD and cut your strips. You will have to trim the selvedge edges straight of course.

Can you show us a picture of the fabric and/or the pattern?

There can be various issues in the manufacturing that can make it hard to get a good straight of grain. Back in the day we would get a friend to help tug the fabric on the diagonal to help straighten... having done a lot of projects with fussy cutting fabrics, I'm not so worried about straight of grain.

Fortunately in modern quilting and processes close is usually good enough. I will typically do a tear across, especially if it is thrift store yardage that I don't know the history. Then I believe in pre-washing anyway part of that is I believe it helps the grain. After the wash, barely dry. and pressing, I fold the fabric in half along the selvedges and try and adjust out any wrinkles or poof -- even if it means the ripped side doesn't match. Then I fold it up again to make it cutting size, using my ironing board as a handy height and shape. Finally I smooth out the folded fabric with my hands, again trying to make any poofs or ripples go away.

When you cut the fabric, you want to unfold especially the first cut to make sure there aren't any Vs at the fold lines. Then about every 3rd-4th cut to make sure you are still straight.

Good luck and don't let it stress you out too much. I second GingerK's advice that sometimes being exactly on grain can cause some issues in itself. And that with printed fabrics sometimes the designs are deliberately "drifted" and don't go straight across the width so I follow the design and figure grain will take care of itself.

I second the question about what you're making.
I only pay attention to straight-of-grain when making clothes. I believe it doesn't matter in quilting, since we're cutting the fabrics up so much anyway.

I do try the washing first, then attempting to pull it back on grain.

Some of the fabrics are processed so that what you have is what you get.

Agree with you Peckish!

Plus .. because once we do all the cutting down and sewing back together, then we quilt it, which stabilizes it all, so any of the off-grain threads can't mess things up on us!! :)

I just try and line up the two selvage edges. I bought a backing once that was so out of line with just about everything, that if I had tried to straighten it, I would have been left with a dishrag.

If the fabric seems to be askew when I'm folding it over, I abandon going by the selvages. I can usually see the grain on the under piece. Once that is straight, regardless of selvage position, I then put the grain of the top piece straight visually, then trim as usual. I don't like tearing edges (not that I have the strength), as it ruins the fabric quite a ways in.

I do try for straight of grain when feasible.

It may not matter, but wonky bothers me.

For things like pillowcases, off grain ones are really hard to fold neatly.

Personally, I want straight of grain whether it's absolutely necessary or not. There is SO much less fraying with pieces cut straight.

Fabric gets off grain as it's wrapped on bolts. The way that most quilters get fabric straight on grain is close at best because of the manufacturing process. For whatever reason, many quilters nearly faint at the thought of tearing - but it's the only way that you're going to get one. Once torn, though, due to the wrapping onto bolts, the selvage is often wonky.

Here's how to fix that, and get an absolute straight grainline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF60qVY83j4

I remember as a little girl, the ladies in the fabric department always measured then tore the fabric at the cutting table. The purpose was to get a straight grain edge for the customer. I don't know why the selvage edges won't match up. Anyway, if my mom was having a hard time on a project, she would pull a thread across the width of fabric to get the grain. Also, try spritzing the fabric with water, gently coax it into alignment, then let it rest. Once the fibers have relaxed you should be able to pull the fabric into place. Or at least as close as you're going to get. Fabric these days, ..... isn't the same.
Edited to add: Back in the day we cared about having the grain lines for garment sewing, they needed to be straight for the garment to have the proper drape. Also, thanks for the trip down memory lane. :)

If i am short of fabric and need a straight grain line , I still will pull a thread instead of tearing.

sometimes tearing can"bruise" the fabric for a coiple of inches on each side of the tear.

also, some woven fabrics do not willingly tear.

I have bought fabrics where the print was off grain. Silly me, I thought that it was just that one bolt. So, I bought it again off of a different bolt different store...and that was when learned that if the fabric is off of grain at the mfg, all the bolts will be off grain. Since the design on the fabric had to be square in the finished quilt, I just went ahead and cut it so the design was squared and ignored the fact that it was off grain. Because the quilt was quilted, the quilting held the fabric so that the design was straight on the finished quilt even if the fabric was off grain and washing it did not affect it.. It ended up being one of my favorite quilts and gave it to my favorite niece who loves it!