Tips for Finding the Straight Grain in Fabrics
ZJ HumbachDescription
Finding the straight grain of fabric is important to do before beginning a project. ZJ Humbach shares several tips for finding the straight of grain in different fabrics.
Understanding Fabric
There are several area of fabric that are important to be familiar with. When you purchase fabric off of a bolt there will be a folded edge, two raw edges where it has been cut and a selvage edge. The selvage of a fabric contains information about the fabric, including designer and colors used in a print. All woven fabric will have a grain line. Grain lines occur while the fabric is being made, with fibers being woven together. Parallel to the selvage are long fibers called the warp, while perpendicular to the selvage are shorter fibers called the weft. At an angle of 45 degrees from the selvage is the bias of the fabric. While some pattern pieces need to be aligned along the straight grain of fabric others require using bias fabric grain.
Finding the Straight Grain
ZJ shows how fabric is not necessarily cut along a grain line when it comes off of a bolt of fabric. This may be more apparent on a print fabric than it is on a solid color, so it is important to test on all fabrics. She demonstrates how you can find the straight grain of fabric by making a small cut with fabric scissors and then tearing the fabric. The fabric tears along one fabric fiber, revealing an edge that is the straight of grain. The process can then be repeated on the opposite edge. ZJ also shows how you can find the straight grain of fabric on materials that don’t easily tear by pulling on one fabric fiber to create a run line that can then be cut along. Once you have found the straight grain of fabric, you are ready to use the fabric for your next project. You can even save the strips you tear off and use them later in fun fabric scrap projects.
Don't you hate it when you bring a piece of fabric home from the fabric store, they've cut it along the edge here to do your yardage, and they folded it up, put it in the bag, and when you get home, you see something like this along the fold line, or you notice on the salvage edge, that it's off? And you know that just can't be right. And no matter how you try to line it up to keep the edge straight over here, it's just not working. That's because it wasn't cut on the straight of grain. So I want to show you a little trick for determining the straight of grain. Take a pair of scissors. I'm going to come down here, because you can see this is way off. We're going to cut into our fabric just a little ways. And you're going to tear. As you tear, this is going to tear right along one of the threads in the fabric, so it will be the perfectly straight grain line. And you normally wouldn't have to come back that far. I'm just doing it as an exaggeration to show you. So now we have torn it. And if you notice, now, when we line up edge to edge, you have, the fold is going to be where it should be. And you can see how far off that cut from the fabric store was. You've lost a good inch and a half at the far point here. And that can make a big difference in your patterns. So for one thing, I always recommend getting at least 1/8 of a yard extra. It's only 4 1/2 inches more, but it's a good insurance policy, because you never know how much this is going to be off. Now, in this case, we were very lucky and it straightened out right away. But if it was still off, what you want to do is come down here and do the same thing at the other end, just tear it. And then you would get somebody else. In this case, you can probably do it yourself, because it's a small yardage. But you would pull slightly this way on the opposite grains on the bias, if you will. And then you want to pull the other way. And what that's doing is, across the length of the fabric, it's helping to straighten out the grain. Come back and iron it. And then line up your salvages and your edges. You can see those are lined up perfectly. Line up your edges. You're going to press in a new fold line. And you can see that that is aligned perfectly and that is aligned perfectly. So that's one way to get your fabric perfectly on the straight of grain, which is important, because if it's not on the straight of grain, your garments are not going to hang straight or hang properly. Your collars will twist. It's just not a good situation. So always make sure your fabric is straight. So that's one way to do it. The other way that many people use is you find a thread and you pull it. So you can see on this piece, this one would be a little harder to tear. It's a type of a polyester, kind of a silky fabric. So in this case, you would find a thread on the edge here. And then you just pull that thread, whoops, thread across. And then it's going to give you a line. Now, if it breaks like it did there, hopefully you can determine where the thread is. And then rather than tearing it, you would take your scissors and you would just cut right along that line. And that is your straight of grain, because of the way fabrics are woven. And then you would repeat the same process of measuring up the salvages and, if you had to, straightening the corners. So with these few little tips, you'll be better prepared to make sure your fabric is always straight and true.
I was appalled at this video. Tearing fabric weakens the threads.This so old school and backwards. I get very upset with quilt stores that do it.
<strong> 20811 Ticket How do I find the straight grain
when I deal with polyester/shiny fabrics that won't tear easily, I pull not 1 but 3/4 threads at the same time. It's stronger to pull less breakage, and the "line" to cut is much more visible.
Finally someone who actually knows the correct way to straighten the grain on a piece of fabric!!!! Was taught this method in High School Home Ec in the lates 60s,,,,
this is helpful when you are making something out of a ready made article of clothing. Also-you can pull from opposite sides of the fbric and when it doesn't give-then that is the straight grain.
Perfect!!
I am a new sewist. This was soooooooo helpful. thank you.
How do you find the straight of grain on a knit?
Thank you! So straight forward and easy to remember.