I thought that I replied to this earlier, but I don't see it now. Hopefully this will not show up twice (or the wrong message thread)!
Yes, Anita Grossman Solomon is the one. I could see her picture in my mind, but not connect it with her name. Thanks! Bev in TX
Ditto. I will accept you and the other folks in this thread, as well as the very fast cutter on television who uses the mat, whom somebody in this thread mentioned, as my validation. I fooled around with this a little bit yesterday and, again,
(1) I can't see the ruler measurements as well as the mat's.
(2) Flipping the cloth around from left to right after the first cut is just asking for misalignment. The mat drags, as it's supposed to, to hold the fabric in place, so it tends to drag a misalignment when I try to turn the fabric.
(3) Both my mats have exactly the same measurements as my clear rulers. (I know this isn't always the case -- you should see the variation among the measuring cups in my kitchen!) Anyhow, for most purposes it's enough just to use the same measure for the entire project, which I do. I'll be using the mat on my big worktable. I'll use my old, smaller mat on my sewing machine as a quick measure whenever it looks like two patches aren't lining up properly, to see if one of them is too short or long. (This really comes in handy, as well as having the pressing surface on the flip side of the mat beside my SM.)
(4) The comparatively wider lines on the mat are not an issue. I just cut on the same edge of the line every time.
I just use the markings on my big, clear ruler to make sure the side of the ruler I'm going to cut against is a perfect perpindicular. Once in a blue moon I use it to actually measure something.
Howdy!
Btw, I put the cutting mat in the middle of a not-very-wide table; square up on one side, then walk around to the other side of the table, instead of moving the fabric & mis-aligning that straight edge. Sometime I go ahead & cut that strip I need w/ a little extra allowance on the "raw" side, then flip the strip & straighten the "raw" side. Always, tho', the fabric I intend to sew is UNDER the ruler, protected from my cutting blade.
R/S
How about the Fons & Porter method? Lay your fabric on the preferred side without straightening. Cut the first strip extra wide to fit the size needed plus all the uneven widths. Recut the strip to the correct size and you have the first strip cut, plus an even edge on the fabric piece without turning the whole big piece. Only turning involves the strip and it is much easier to turn than a big piece of fabric. Less hassle and it does the same job.
Anna Belle in Palm Bay
Sandy E wrote:
Moral of the story, there are many ways to do things, and some work better for one person than another and somehow we have to figure out what works for us. The tricky thing is unless you actually have someone looking over your shoulder we don't always spot where we make an error. Some people teach or write books with the attitude of do exactly what I do, others tell you what they do and give you hints and tips. It's a good job there are different products in the shops so we can find something that works for our own personal way of working.
Cheers Anne
On Tue, 9 Mar 2010 14:29:27 -0600, Sandy E wrote (in article ):
Yep, this is how I do it as well. Counts as exercise, right? ;-)
Maureen
Howdy!
That's what I call trimming the "raw" side (below). You got it, Anna Belle!
Cheers!
R/Sandy
Interesting thread! I agree, Bev, that flipping the fabric often messes up the alignment of cut edge. Here is what I learned about rotary cutting in a Sharyn Craig* class many moons ago. I am right handed and will describe the method for right handed cutter. (* I think it was Sharyn; I could be mistaken.) This system means you do not need to move the fabric, nor the mat, nor yourself! Way cool.
Fold fabric and align selvedge edges as usual. (You may fold once or twice as desired.) Keep the selvedge edge away from you, and align the fold along any HORIONTAL line (that is running parallel to the edge of table.) The edge to be cut should be to your left. Now use your ruler and mat together to trim the raw edge. Do this by determining how much you need to cut to get the straight edge you want; find the VERTICAL line just inside this point. Okay so far? Place the right edge of ruler on that line, making sure you have some HORIZONTAL lines of the ruler matched to (any) HORIZONTAL lines of mat. Cut along the ruler right edge. Do NOT move fabric yet! Check that you have a nice even cut. Then cut what ever strips you need. At this point, I ignore the mat lines, and use only my ruler markings. In fact I use mat lines only for this alignment cutting.
One more suggestion. If you ever have to move fabric but want to keep that edge aligned, you can use several pins at right angles to the edge. HTH.
PAT in VA/USA
As my mom used to say, "There's more than one way to skin a cat!"
Mom had a lot of colorful expressions ;-)
ep
Thanks for your suggestion on how to align the straightening cut using the cutting mats lines :-). I'll be sure to try it out.
I th> Interesting thread! I agree, Bev, that flipping the fabric often messes u= p
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