Straightening grain of fabric - Help!
 

I'm seem to be wasting soooo much fabric. I'm tearing down from selvage to selvage on both edges and sometimes it gets worse. My gosh, I loose so much fabric. I stretch it by hand on the bias. I get it pretty close but I'm still hung up on all that wasted fabric. Does anyone else have this hang up? Am I doing it right? Would I be better off to have the sales lady tear rather than cut? Or just take it as a cost of quilting? Thanks.

We are not apparel sewing and straight of grain isn't the issue in quilting that it is in clothing. I wash the fabric, press it without creases it, shake it and let the top edge fall where it will so that the selvages are even and there are no wrinkles. I rarely lose more than 1/2". Fabric is wound on the bolts while damp and not always straight. Washing and drying helps remediate that twisting. You won't get a salesperson to tear any fabric except fake fur, at least not at JoAnn's in the 90s when I worked there.

Irishrose2 thank you so much for your response. You don't know what a relief off my mind this explanation is.

Like IrishRose I don't worry too much about straight of grain except on backing. Since your back is the "foundation" of the quilt, a wonk back will mean a wonky top. But if you are tearing to get straight of grain with wideback, you need to
start at a fold and go SLOWLY in both directions (but only one layer at a time). You will be amazed at how off grain the wideback can be at times. I have been in stores that will tear your wideback so that you get your full amount and don't ahve off grain waste. There is also a big fabric store in Lawrence, KS that pulls a thread and then cut along that marker of straight of grain.

I don't usually worry much about straight of grain, but when it is important to me I pull a thread and cut on it. (for fussy cutting matching patterns, or non pieced borders mostly)

Maybe it's my background, but I always make sure my fabric is straight of grain.

Leah Day has a really good video on how to do this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcpzwJMVTbc

Watson

I do tear my backing because it's too hard to line up a large piece of fabric.

I just watched the video Watson posted. That is pretty much what I do except I do my wiggling at the ironing board or cutting table, not in the air.

I, too, only rip large pieces of fabric. For piecing, I get it as close being straight as I can but don't obsess about it. As Irishrose said, if you're not making apparel it's not as important for the fabric to be exactly straight.

I'm sorry to be confused by this but could someone explain why ripping the fabric is helpful for large backings. Don't
you still have to line up the fabric to make sure there aren't any wrinkles (that it is straight)or are you folding the fabric
with the sides matching of what you just ripped and you cut from there?