bearisgray

Glad it may have helped.

I find pictures and drawings to be very helpful.

Prism99

The ruler needs to be perfectly perpendicular to the fold in order to get straight strips. If the ruler is even a couple of degrees off from perpendicular to the fold (say, 92 degrees instead of 90 degrees), there will be a bend at the fold when you look at the entire strip. For this reason, you will likely get more accurate cuts if the fold is near you. This allows you to monitor closely the angle of the ruler in relation to the fold.

I use a second ruler to keep my cutting ruler perpendicular to the fold. (A medium-sized square ruler works well for the second ruler.) I make sure a line on the secondary ruler is lined up with the fold, then butt my cutting ruler against the secondary ruler. This keeps my cutting ruler perpendicular to the fold. It would be much more difficult to do this with the fold away from you.

Prism99

The bend has nothing to do with the grain of the fabric. The bend is caused by the ruler not being a true 90 degrees from the fold. You can cut folded fabric into bias strips and not have bends -- but only if the ruler is perpendicular to the fold.

I do not like folding fabric twice before cutting because it is so hard to get the two folds exactly parallel to one another. If they are not exactly parallel, then one of them will not be cut at a true 90 degrees from the fold and you will get a bend there.

bstanbro

Thank you very much. That helps. I actually feel more secure when I have my ruler butted up against another one. I'm hoping for one of those handles for Christmas (and if I don't get one, I'll buy my own). I have arthritis in both hands, and so it's hard for me to really hold the ruler tight.

Barb_MO

I have started laying my hand flat on the ruler and hold it down with the heel of my hand instead of using my fingers. I can kind of lean down on my hand flat like that where I couldn't with my arthritic finders holding the ruler.

bearisgray

If it's a long cut - and I have a high cutting table - I'll lean my whole arm on the ruler.

bstanbro

Yes, unfortunately, I can't do that either. I had carpal tunnel surgery a while back and it has taken me a long time to heal from that. I'm thinking in another year I might be able to do it again. In my experience it takes about three years to COMPLETELY recover from orthopedic surgery so that there is no pain at all and the limb is completely mobile.

Carol W

Thanks for the tute.

littlehud

I usually have the fold closest to me. But I have done it the other way too. Both work for me.

weezie

I have serious issues with the selvages. They are wibbly-wobbly (no translation forthcoming for "wibbly-wobbly" and not in the dictionary I think) and they also go from skinny to wide, etc. In short, they are very unreliable! So, I square up and smooth my fabric as best I can and line up on the fabric a 20-1/2 inch square ruler with what I determine to be the center fold. Than I butt a 2-foot long, 6"-wide ruler up against the large square one and use the edge of that to cut off the selvages. Having started cutting from that side, I just continue to cut toward the fold, rather than starting at the fold side. Having said all that, I think there's no reason for you to choose the open side over the folded side if you feel secure that your fabric is folded as straight and evenly as possible. Getting rid of the selvage edges first just happens to be a personal preference for me.