Originally Posted by GGinMcKinney
I remember. Also, when we had the fabric at home I seam to remember we pulled a thread to be sure fabric was straight. Now, I don't remember how to pull a thread or if it is even a good idea with today's fabrics.
It has always been a good idea, because the results are that your blocks and quilt will be square, and will never get wonky. ever!
We used to snip across the selvege, and ravel out a thread or two, and start pulling on them, gathering the fabric, until either the thread broke, or you got all the way across.
In either case, there is a line in the fabric, and you cut carefully with scissors exactly on the line. If the thread broke, you just cut that far, raveled enough thread to get hold of and pulled more. Usually somebody pulled a thread to cut off a piece from several yards. It was also a good way to get square pieces or blocks.
Then, in order to square up the fabric, we used to grab one corner, and somebody else would grab the fabric at a point diagonal from where you were holding, and both would pull very hard, and the fabric would shift into being "square".
There was a kind of skill to this, learning exactly the angles needed to make the fabric come out square. Jeannie