How to Fold Your Fabric for Cutting
How should you fold new fabric when you get it home so that it will be ready to cut whenever inspiration strikes you? This helpful video from Nancy Roelfsema of On Point Tutorials shows one good way to fold your fabric so you can just take it off the shelf and have it all ready to start cutting. The video also explains what fabric selvages, fabric grain, and bias are, and shows you exactly what a fat quarter is.
Watch it below:
Stacked fabric photo by Gabrielle, Flickr
I love your folding technique. Question: sounds like you don’t wash and dry your fabric before sewing. Comments on that please. Thank you, Susan
I was hoping to see her answer to your question about washing prior. What is the quilting standard?
This is one of those topics of perennial debate in the quilting world. Some people prewash everything, and others don’t prewash at all. I generally prewash flannels because they shrink so much, but I’ve gotten away from prewashing regular quilter’s cotton, because I’ve found that the quilts I’ve made with fabric right off the bolt have turned out fine. Also, I never wash precuts because washing can fray the edges and distort the shapes, and I’m making more and more quilts with precuts. They have turned out fine too. Hope that’s enlightening, Cheryl.
I forgot to say in my previous comment that if you don’t prewash your fabrics, it’s really important to wash the finished quilt with something to minimize color bleeding. I use Shout Color Catchers, and some other people recommend Synthrapol.
I have seen other quilters fold the fabric in similar way except for foldin in 5 inch folds they fold first 1 yard widths, then 18 inches, then 9 inches so they can easily tell by the folds how much of the fabric they have
That sounds like an excellent idea, Peggy.