RosaSharon

My Granny was a professional tailor and a quilter. She always ripped her fabric instead of cutting it. Back in the old days that's how they did it. If she did it it's ok with me then.

Daylesewblessed

[QUOTE=costumegirl;8025769]I don't usually like ripping fabric as it does damage to the fibers around the rip.

I never thought about ripping lengthwise for borders

Costumegirl, consider this: when ripping lengthwise for borders, it is the crosswise threads (weft) that rip, not the stronger lengthwise threads (warp).

Prism99

That's fine for garment making. How many garments are going to have seams that lie along the ripped edge?

In quilting, it is quite common to cut a 2.5" strip that will be used in a quilt. If that strip is cut from a ripped edge that has been trimmed 1/4" and is then used in strip-piecing, the entire seam on one side of that strip will be sewn on damaged fabric.

We can't see germs without a microscope. It's the same sort of thing with fabric ripped on the cross-grain. You don't see the damage until you look at the fabric under a microscope.

Most of us don't pass handmade garments on to the next generation. I don't think of myself as an heirloom quilter, but I do want to pass my quilts on to the next generation, and the generation after that if they hold up. I really don't mind if the binding wears out first; it's relatively easy to replace. What I do mind is having a few pieces here and there in my quilts that do not hold up to use the way the rest of the fabric holds up. The pieces that don't hold up as well will be the pieces that contain fabric within 2" of the crosswise rip.

Lengthwise rips are not as hard on fabric as crosswise rips, as others have noted. Weft and warp do matter, as Dayle pointed out. This is why I will on occasion rip borders. When I do this, I do remove an inch along the ripped edge for safety.

I do not have a problem with crosswise rips on wide backing fabric because, as someone mentioned, the 2" near the rip will be cut from the quilt before binding.

As for losing less fabric with ripping, the only way this can happen is if you ignore the existing fabric fold, re-fold so that selvedge edges match, *and* ignore the damage done to the ripped edges. If you remove the damage, you have just lost 2" of fabric from each side even though you have straight-on-grain edges. In my case, I prefer to cut from the fold that is already in the fabric. This means that not only do I need to cut 4" of fabric off each end to get rid of the damage, I also have to square up my fabric from the fold. Since the ripped edges on these fabrics are 2" to 3" apart at the selvedges, this means I lose another several inches of good quality fabric squaring up.

Losing the fabric squaring up is particularly galling because, as someone earlier pointed out, quilting strips do not need to be cut exactly on the straight-of-grain. In fact, they fray less if they are cut slightly off-grain. That is why I prefer to cut from the fold that comes with the fabric. The strips are not enough off-grain to create stretch, but just enough off-grain to dramatically reduce fraying. I notice occasionally that people will post here about cleaning up all the frays in their quilt tops before sandwiching. I always wonder if these are the people who take the trouble to ensure that they are cutting their strips exactly on-grain.

My biggest issue is actually with myself, for not noticing the ripped edges before I cut strips for my current quilt. I didn't want to throw away the good fabric with the bad, but at that point I had no way of telling which strips were the first ones I had cut from the ripped edge. This was not a good choice to have to make.

NikkiLu

I go to the big Quilt Show in Paducah and Eleanor Burns has a store there, and rents a warehouse or two or a tent, to sell Tons of bolts of fabrics. Her employees Rip/Tear all of the fabric - lines are 10 deep and women have stacks and stacks of bolts to be cut. I asked the clerk one time about tearing the fabric and she said that none of them could possibly cut all of the fabric that we were buying. On a side note, EB rented a building in a livestock fairgrounds one year and it had a dirt/rock floor and she had tables all around where you could put your bolts of fabric while you were waiting in line - to "mark" yours, she said to pick up a clean rock and put it on the top of your pile - so everybody would know that this pile was taken - LOL

Prism99

I wouldn't mind the ripping if I were at Eleanor Burns' store and purchasing 3 yards of each fabric, especially if the prices were good. Losing 6" off 5 yards of fabric is not too bad. My problem was that I had purchased 1 yard each of ten different fabrics. Although G Street provided generous yards of 38" each, I still ended up with only 32" inches per yard of useable fabric.

sewbizgirl

I don't mind ripping at all... It's quicker and more accurate. It does not damage the fabric beyond maybe a slight distortion of threads right at the edge. You can take the ripped edge to the ironing board and press it back flat. I rip a lot, both lengthwise and crosswise, and have yet to see more than 1/8" to 1/4" at the very edge that is affected. That much falls into the seam line. It's no big deal.

QuiltnNan

This thread is being closed due to a publicly posted argument.