[cybele727]

So I purchased a cotton and stee fabric. It has a vertical print of cute little animals. It is called Harjuku Aqua. The animals are a continuous line, like a stripe.

So it appears to have been printed not square. The person who cut it didn’t merely just fold and cut, she opened the fabric and fussy cut at the feet of the animals. To keep it straight. So while the cut line matches their feet, it is actually crooked.

Yet when you fold it in half the “lines” of the animals at the selvages do not match up. They are off about 1/2 inch.

The only thing on the fold is the waist band. Do I eyeball and cut everything off grain a bit, or do I just do something else with this fabric where an obvious vertical line won’t show?

How do you all handle fabric that was printed off grain/ not square?

[Sarvi]

I haven’t encountered this myself, but I remember Nicole making something .. I think it was a shirt for Hugo? where it was printed off grain and it was super annoying. Can you tug/steam it into shape a bit? I’m not sure how much you could ameliorate it before the animals looked really skewed.

[Nicole]

Good memory Sarvi.

Yes, that was me and it was so frustrating. I ended up cutting the body to grain and cutting the cuff to the pattern but then interfacing the whole cuff so it was a bit more stable.

[Lightning McStitch]

My love of stripes and cheap fabric has led me to this problem a couple of times.
With the fabric wet you may be able to realign it so that the selvedges meet and the stripes are vertical, or maybe not.
I would cut so that the striped pattern is true and figure that a small degree off straight grain is workable.

[JWo]

You could try this method

Click to access 4_204_straightening_fabric_grain.pdf

I remember my mum trying to do something similar when I was a child.

[cybele727]

Lightening… I love that… my love of stripes and cheap fabric…

I will check out that link and also look at the idea of soaking and stretching to match it up a bit.

But so frustrating. Especially since I made a bunch of bland boring solid skirts to be a base for school clothes, and this was supposed to be the “fun” skirt!

Nicole, I will consider cutting off grain and reinforcing the heck out of the waistband.

[miss_sonja]

If the fabric is defective, you could return it. I think Cotton + Steel would stand behind their fabric.

[juliamom2009]

@cybele727 – I’m curious – are you happy with the way the fabric shop cut it? Because I cut large scale prints that way as well….so I’m wondering if that was a good thing to you or a bad thing…

[cybele727]

You know that is a great question. I certainly understand why she fussy cut across the vertical line to make sure she cut straight, and it would have been if it was printed that way.

I appreciated it actually and still do, since it wasn’t her fault. Last year, I purchased some 1/2 yard cuts of Liberty from SohoPurl when in NYC. The young woman just cut straight across without determining if the prior cut was straight. When I got home (400 miles away) and went to work with them they had been cut so crookedly that I lost about 6 inches… I was a bit put out, as you can imagine. Precious Liberty paid for and severely shorted. Boo!

I would say on an internet order, if I ordered and the person came back to me to say, this is printed slightly off grain, do you want me to cut straight on grain, or straight on the pattern, or do you want to cancel, I’d probably cancel that order and then pick something else and make sure I reordered from that place because of the great service. I am always willing to pay the $1-3 dollars more per yard when I get great service.

Hmmm… I wonder if I have enough Liberty for a cute button placket on jumprope come to think on it! The wheels are spinning.

I am wondering if I should contact Cotton and Steel to say hey, look at this crooked print. I hestitate to go back to the shop because the owner is prickly and one of the few garment fabric carriers in my area. I had to unfriend her on FB because she’d complain about customers and considering I was one, it made me wonder if she talked about me that way! (I don’t complain about my clients on FB or in any writing, and boy the stories I could tell! 😉 ) I don’t go to her shop often, but sometimes when I want something unique/special and IMMEDIATE, I can find it there.

But yes, fussy cut is preferrable. I will probably cut the waist band off grain (but straight on the pattern of the vertical images) and reinforce with facing. The rest I think I can cut on grain/crooked, since over the width of 42 inches it is only 1/2 inch off total. That won’t show up on a gathered skirt. Although I may have to do a different pattern than I intended (music box). Maybe the lazy days, which won’t show it at all. And then I can feel good that I didn’t waste the fabric, but also that I didn’t put in the time for a detailed skirt that will ever be frustratingly imperfect to me. LOL Crazy, right? Now to think of the right pockets for Lazy days as they are mandatory pursuant to her royal highness. The monster I’ve made! 😉

Oh this post is so meandering… I am sorry. It is late and I am totally Faulkner stream of consciousness at the moment!