Originally Posted by jljack
Originally Posted by Scissor Queen
Almost all fabric used to be torn when you bought it. The stores had a measuring thing they pulled the fabric thru and when it was the amount you wanted they'd push on it and it would cut a notch and then the clerk would tear the fabric.
Oh, Queen!!! I had forgotten all about that little tool in the fabric shops....it had a dial on the top that moved like a clock as they pulled the fabric through, and then the little cutter mechanism that made the notch to tear the fabric.
WOW!! I would never have remembered that!!! I recently was at a quilt show where a vendor was tearing the fabric she sold. I was fascinated, and she said that's the only way she knows the fabric is straight on grain, and she would never do it another way.
My mom made most of our dresses when we were young and she shopped at Ben Franklin's most of the time for fabric and they used that thing. I'll always remember the way it sounded when the clerk pulled the fabric thru it and then tearing the fabric.
I have lost as much as 4 inches off a piece of fabric because it was so off grain on the bolt.