peaceandjoy

Personally, I want straight of grain whether it's absolutely necessary or not. There is SO much less fraying with pieces cut straight.

Fabric gets off grain as it's wrapped on bolts. The way that most quilters get fabric straight on grain is close at best because of the manufacturing process. For whatever reason, many quilters nearly faint at the thought of tearing - but it's the only way that you're going to get one. Once torn, though, due to the wrapping onto bolts, the selvage is often wonky.

Here's how to fix that, and get an absolute straight grainline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF60qVY83j4

L'il Chickadee

I remember as a little girl, the ladies in the fabric department always measured then tore the fabric at the cutting table. The purpose was to get a straight grain edge for the customer. I don't know why the selvage edges won't match up. Anyway, if my mom was having a hard time on a project, she would pull a thread across the width of fabric to get the grain. Also, try spritzing the fabric with water, gently coax it into alignment, then let it rest. Once the fibers have relaxed you should be able to pull the fabric into place. Or at least as close as you're going to get. Fabric these days, ..... isn't the same.
Edited to add: Back in the day we cared about having the grain lines for garment sewing, they needed to be straight for the garment to have the proper drape. Also, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

bearisgray

If i am short of fabric and need a straight grain line , I still will pull a thread instead of tearing.

sometimes tearing can"bruise" the fabric for a coiple of inches on each side of the tear.

also, some woven fabrics do not willingly tear.

pennyhal2

I have bought fabrics where the print was off grain. Silly me, I thought that it was just that one bolt. So, I bought it again off of a different bolt different store...and that was when learned that if the fabric is off of grain at the mfg, all the bolts will be off grain. Since the design on the fabric had to be square in the finished quilt, I just went ahead and cut it so the design was squared and ignored the fact that it was off grain. Because the quilt was quilted, the quilting held the fabric so that the design was straight on the finished quilt even if the fabric was off grain and washing it did not affect it.. It ended up being one of my favorite quilts and gave it to my favorite niece who loves it!