[Kim]

I am cutting out an Ice Cream dress from a Japanese fabric and the little people in the pattern run in the wrong direction. The stretch will run vertical down the front of the dress and yoke rather that horizontal around it, what kinds of challenges can I expect?

[sayiamyou]

I’m sure someone with much more experience will chime in, but from my own limited fiddling with fabrics I would say that you’ll lose a little of the stretch. I wouldn’t think you couldn’t do it though. Can’t wait to see this one!

[icicle]

I agree — this isn’t a fitted pattern shape so it likely won’t matter much.

[Violaisabelle]

I am assuming the fabric is fairly light weight and cotton. If that’s the case, and since this is a small dress, I don’t think it should be a problem. If this was a heavy fabric and much longer in length, I might be hesitant to do it. Cutting across the grain, rather than with the grain, can cause a ‘sagging’ to happen. That will usually come with weight and length.

Happy Sewing,

Carol

[Nicole]

I frequently swop the grain line and have never had a problem.

I guess there is a first time for everything…..and I wouldn’t do it for an adult outfit,but with little things it has been fine.

I made this top that way.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/motherof5/4748992890/in/set-72157625138776927

[Liesl Gibson]

For most fabrics you can swap the grain and use the cross-grain instead. Exeptions would include corduroy or anything with a nap or obvious texture to it (velvet, silk dupioni) or if you’re sewing with knits you couldn’t swap interlock since it only stretches one way. For a cotton it will be fine, and you may find a lot of printed cottons that are printed this way. It’s often a matter of bowing when the fabric is finished–stripes are frequently better printed when they are parallel to the selvedges, for example.

Cut away! Should be fine.

[Tamara]

Liesel got in before me as I would have said anything with a nap or one way stretch. Alot of the time with woven fabrics that don’t fall into the above category the project will still work out. You bsically are working with the print on the fabric this way and for aesthetics, I don’t blame you.

I ditto everyone above by saying that your dress will look great and the fabric will behave.

Japanese prints are quite fun to play with

[KarenK]

I’m with the others, the only other time I wouldn’t do it that hasn’t been mentioned already is when making pants or shorts. I personally would prefer to err on the side of stretch when someone will be sitting down in a piece of fitted clothing like pants. But again, that’s my own preference.

[Sarvi]

I did not even know that crosswise vs lengthwise was ‘across’ rather than on the grain. Golly. Learn something new every day.

[Violaisabelle]

I had hoped to get back to this thread with a link to one of my favorite vintage sewing sites that has wonderful instructional information, but I keep getting error messages. I hope they have not shut down.

I should have mentioned this earlier, but forgot. When cutting across the grain, or on grain for that matter, you want to make sure your fabric is squared, before cutting. What can happen sometimes is that in the weaving process the weft and warp are not at 90 degrees, or right angles, causing the fabric to be ‘off grain’. I just had this happen with the shirred popover dress I made, which has stripes in it. http://stitchedbyhislove.blogspot.com/2011/05/another-oliver-s-shirred-popover.html Here is some great information on fabric grains from Taunton, including how to ‘square’ the fabric or grain. http://www.taunton.com/threads/pdf/grainline.pdf Lots of great information in the article. 🙂

Carol