Quilting Tips

Fab­ric How to’s

Wash and iron your fab­ric.  If your fab­ric runs, be sure to wash it with like col­ors.  I some­times just run the washer with min­i­mal soap, or I’ve even soaked it in a hot tub and then placed in the dryer.  If you want to color test a fab­ric first, just cut a piece and toss it hot water.  If it runs, I would use laun­dry soap.

Here we dis­sect the parts of the fab­ric.  You want to fold it so the sel­vages meet.  When you get your fab­ric cut at the fab­ric store, they are cut­ting the raw edge of the fab­ric.  This is the part we will even up and cut off to cut strips from.  Some stores tear right down this grain after mak­ing a snip in it.  Amaz­ingly it tears straight!  The other labels are for your ref­er­ence to learn.

The ‘bias’ has the most stretch in fab­ric.  Test it for your­self.  Which part has the least stretch?  Length­wise or Cross­wise?  Can you fig­ure it out?

 

 

Line up the fab­ric on your cut­ting mat.  Make sure it’s ironed!  This photo looks a bit wrinkly, but it was smooth enough to cut straight.

 

Fold up to meet the other end.  Line up the bot­tom crease nice and smooth on a hor­i­zon­tal line and allow just the uneven edge to cross over a ver­ti­cal line so you can cut it off.

 

Using the ruler and rotary cut­ter, line up the ruler along the uneven edge, press gen­tly but firmly and cut the edge off.

Slide your hand up and along the ruler as you cut (lift and slide don’t move the ruler!) to keep things straight.  Your fab­ric is ready to cut strips.