Funky Folds?
 

Howdy y'all :c)

Recently I picked up many, many yards of fabric some notions, and even a sewing machine at an estate sale. I petted the fabrics and loved them, then stored them in tubs to be used when needed. The past week I've been working on revamping my sewing room. So I got some of the acid-free comic book boards to wrap fabric around so I could put it all on the new bookshelves I bought. As I was wrapping all of my fabrics around the boards, I came to the fabric I had bought at this estate sale. Now keep in mind that some of these pieces of fabrics were between 6 and 10 yards long. As I tried to get them folded appropriately to wrap them around the boards, I saw that for some reason, every one of the pieces from that particular sale had been unfolded, then refolded so that the raw edges were together rather than the selvedges! Now tell me.....why on earh would a person DO that?!?!? It has been SUCH a big job to try to refold these huge pieces of fabric by myself. I just can't fathom why anyone would think this is a good idea!

On another note, can anyone explain to me why some fabrics you buy at the quilt shops are folded selvedge to selvedge, but wrong-side out? I know it's fairly common with some batiks, but I have 3 fabrics that I found while wrapping around the boards that weren't batiks that were folded this way. Two of them were Christmas fabrics, and one was one that I bought at Hancock's at one point that was drop-dead gorgeous, but once I got it home I found out it was even MORE gorgeous that I had originally thought when I bought it! Is there a reason for doing this that I haven't learned about yet? Teach me oh knowledgeable ones!!! ;-)

Donna

They probably had it unfolded at some point. And raw edges together would happen to also follow the most instinctive way to fold something. I mean for most people that is how you fold most things, fold the longest side in half, and go from there. Especially if it ended up being folded by someone who wasn't a "fabric person".

many people fold their fabric raw edge to raw edge because it was bought for clothing and it needed to be wider than half...big people often need this extra width.... you don't know it was bought for quilting in the first place... it may well have been a way for them to tell which was pre-washed and which wasn't... common techique in earlier years... and the wrong side out fabric? well those are older companies... ALL fabric used to be folded this way a long time ago... it protects it from being sun-faded...that's why they used to be folded with a little trianglular 'bed-turn-down' thingy on the top...so we could see the right side...

One reason the fabric was folded with the right side on the inside it to pretect it from fading. Even flouresent lights can fade fabric. In the "old" days all fabrics were folded this way, and to display they unwrap about 18 inches would flip the fabic over the bolt top, making a cascade over the top. It was a beautiful display fabric and you could feel the fabric and see the drape.

I had someone 'helping' me fold my fabrics, and they also folded with raw edges together. I couldn't believe how hard it was to fold them right. As for being wound wrong side out on the cardboard, they used to fold them back over (if that makes sense to you) and then you saw the right side. They don't bother with that now. Had to have taken a lot of time, actually.

Sometimes (eons ago...) fabric was folded raw edge to raw edge to remind the owner that it had been washed...

I remember when all the fabric was folded right side inside. The lights in the store made the fading faster.

Some ends of bolts/flat folds come to discount stores folded raw edges together--the store employees then have to refold before they are put out. Don't know why they come that way but have seen it.

So correct. And correctly named as well. Years ago, I think most fabric stores draped their fabric. It looked nice, especially better dress fabric. But these days, most fabric stores cater mostly to quilters. So we don't drape them any more. Gosh, once in a while we would get in a bolt that was on the bolt with right side out (like you see it now) and we would have to take it off the bolt and refold it and put it back on the bolt. Things change.