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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.
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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.
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Irishrose2 thank you so much for your response. You don't know what a relief off my mind this explanation is.
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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)
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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 only rip when a piece of fabric is too big to cut, like a backing. I leave about 4 inches extra on top and bottom and then rip. For regular piecing, I just rotary cut.
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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.
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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? |
If I do a small quilt that I can cut the backing all on my table, I rotary cut it. Big quilts I rip my backings since it is easier then laying out the whole length, measuring with a tape measure and then rotary cutting the length. I make sure my backings are about 3 inches bigger all around my quilt top. When the quilting is all done, I rotary cut my quilt edge for the final squaring before binding.
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Originally Posted by Tartan
(Post 7918185)
If I do a small quilt that I can cut the backing all on my table, I rotary cut it. Big quilts I rip my backings since it is easier then laying out the whole length, measuring with a tape measure and then rotary cutting the length. I make sure my backings are about 3 inches bigger all around my quilt top. When the quilting is all done, I rotary cut my quilt edge for the final squaring before binding.
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After the length is ripped, and it is big enough laid out flat to go beyond the edges of my quilt top, I make the quilt sandwich and quilt, that's it.
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Originally Posted by Tartan
(Post 7918247)
After the length is ripped, and it is big enough laid out flat to go beyond the edges of my quilt top, I make the quilt sandwich and quilt, that's it.
the very wide (103 inch or such) fabric and you aren't ripping the 42 inch wide fabric. If one has 5 yds of 42 inch fabric you still have to join pieces to get it wide enough to work on a 60 x 60 inch quilt. Are you ripping at intervals? I am just not "seeing" this. |
I usually use wide backs but if I need to sew 45 inch fabric lengths together to get it wide enough, I rip two lengths of fabric and then put the selvage together and sew a 1 inch seam for a center seam. After sewing the center seam, I trim off the selvages and leave a 1/2 inch center seam. I then usually run a line of hand stitches to keep the center seam allowances to one side so they don't flip when I am quilting.
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Originally Posted by Tartan
(Post 7918322)
I usually use wide backs but if I need to sew 45 inch fabric lengths together to get it wide enough, I rip two lengths of fabric and then put the selvage together and sew a 1 inch seam for a center seam. After sewing the center seam, I trim off the selvages and leave a 1/2 inch center seam. I then usually run a line of hand stitches to keep the center seam allowances to one side so they don't flip when I am quilting.
directions. Thank you for your patience! |
i think the best idea ever is that of tearing one thread out of the fabric to work with a straight grain. makes sense to me. but, do i straighten the grain before or after i wash. i would like the experts at the quilting to answer the question please and thank you. mickey r.
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I never worried about straight of grain with my quilts and blankets, no issues that I've noticed.
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The more off the grain is in piecing, the more little threads come loose as you put your top together. I hate the back of my top to be messy with all those threads!
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When I was growing up the fabric stores all measured out the length and the ripped the fabric, in some of the stores they just did like I do at home, snipped about an inch past the selvage and then ripped, but in other stores there was this gizmo that was attached to the counter-- does anyone else remember those and how they worked?
Anyway, I still rip the length of grain when I need a long straight piece, like for a back, or borders, etc. I have also been known to rip across the grain when I was in a hurry and didn't want to take the time to pull out my rotary cutter. My mom made clothes and she always pulled a thread and then followed it to make the cut , then if the grain needed straightening I think she did something like pulling on opposite corners (does that sound familiar?). Rob |
Rob, I also remember that machine. You ran the fabric fold through to measure it, then kind of hit the top of it to start the cut. Except plaids, which I remember being cut single, right along the thread line.
Nonetheless, we still would pull a thread get the grain of the width, then checked to see if the warp and weft were perpendicular, then pulled it on grain if needed. And Mom made us out a new fold into the fabric if it wasn’t exactly in the middle. |
Originally Posted by indymta
(Post 7918154)
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? Fabric is woven with 1/2 of the threads going horizontal and 1/2 vertical. If you are able to line it up so that the crosswise thread are at 90 degrees to the length wise threads, then your fabric is "straight", which is a perfect scenario. Most all the methods that are described are attempting to straighten fabric so that the vertical and horizontal threads are at 90 degrees to each other. bkay |
Originally Posted by Krisb
(Post 8024930)
Rob, I also remember that machine. You ran the fabric fold through to measure it, then kind of hit the top of it to start the cut. Except plaids, which I remember being cut single, right along the thread line.
Nonetheless, we still would pull a thread get the grain of the width, then checked to see if the warp and weft were perpendicular, then pulled it on grain if needed. And Mom made us out a new fold into the fabric if it wasn’t exactly in the middle. Yes, my Mom did that for all the fabric she purchased, I’d forgotten about making the new fold after pulling the thread and straightening.... thanks for remindng me how that machine worked... Rob |
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