sewplease

I worked part time in a quilt shop for 3 glorious years and we also tore the fabric. It can be so crooked on the bolt sometimes. We would always allow a little extra for the small distortion along the torn edges. I haven't seen anyone in a store tear fabric in years. Like BellaBoo, I always tear my borders the length of the fabric.

Lori S

I tear quit abit.. it's the fastest way to get the straight of grain. I rather enjoy a good rip!

linda8450

Back in 1978 I made 75 square dance dresses for a club. There were miles and miles of red ruffles, narrow ones for the sleeves and wide ones for the bottom of the skirts. I tore and tore and they were wonderful. I would make clips along the cut end of a bolt of fabric at the designated widths I needed, tear down about a foot, grab every other strip and hand it to a friend. We then walked away from each other the length of the room and then went again! I sat and hemmed them, she ruffled them, they went into baskets by size (2", 7", 9", etc.) and got applied to the skirts and sleeves. Took WAY less time then cutting, I can't even imagine doing it with scissors (this was before rotary cutters were common). I still rip and shock people all the time!

adamae

I don't often tear fabric. It seems to want to get it out of square and then have to pull corners to correct it. If I do tear, I will usually trim the edge and so what have I gained
, more work. Pet peeve is to buy a printed fabric such as a toile and discover it is to be not on the straight grain crosswise. The, I tear viciously.

bakermom

I do the same. No problems with it.

pittsburgpam

I just tore some last night, a favorite thing to do! I have a long length of black that I need some piecing and some borders from. I didn't want to cut off length for the piecing and leave myself short on the borders so... I tore off a long 6" strip.

Suzette316

I wish my LQS would rip the fabric. It's such a pet peeve of mine that while I am paying a premium price for my quilting fabric and doing my best to support my LQS, I still all too often get short-changed on my fabric amounts because once I get it home it is so distorted I have to cut a bunch off to get it straight and squared up on grain. aaarrghhhh!!!

IowaStitcher

OK, showing my age. In HS Home Ec we learned to straighten fabric by tearing. It will only tear on the cross grain, not on the bias. Then to make sure the grain line was straight, with 2 people, we stood with the fabric folded in half, selvedges at the top holding the 2 corners of our end of the length of fabric. Keeping the selvedge edges even, we shifted the fabric until it hung straight with no wrinkles. Then, if one side was longer than the other, we dropped that corner and pulled the short side away from one another (like a tug of war) . Rechecked it and worked until the fabric was on grain. This probably will not be too successful on poly blends or any man made fibers that may be heat set in the mfg. process. Not sure why this still isn't done. But no one teaches serious sewing any more. (Do I sound like a grumpy OLD person. tee hee).

nhweaver

I tear fabric when I am taking a length off a larger piece. I was told that the tear gives a true straight edge, what I have found out the it does give a true edge, but in some fabrics, the print is not screened on true. Some fabric gives alot of strings, some don't. What I have also been told is that a blend fabric when torn will pull threads (the non cotton threads) and ripple the edge. This has happened to me especially with older ginghams which I now know are a blend.

Central Ohio Quilter

The way to be SURE that your fabric is on the straight of grain. But sometimes it is more important that the pattern of the print is straight than the grain is straight.