Take your elbows off the table

[Fire1]

Please help! Im new to quilting and every time I think I have cut fabric straight I somehow always end up with these 'elbows' in the middle and it's crooked...uggghhh😞 what am I doing wrong? I watch your tutorials Jenny and absolutely love them, they are so inspirational! But I'm not too good at "eyeballing" yet! By the way when are you coming to Pennsylvania!!' Thanks much Donna

[Miss Sheri]

Donna,
Are you using a rotary cutter or scissors? The couple things that helped me the most was to
A) Put little stick on grips to the underside of your rulers.
B) Stand, never sit, when cutting, always be above your fabric so you can apply consistent pressure on your ruler. If I have a long strip to cut (like folded width of fabric) I begin with my hand near where I am starting to cut to give extra pressure, then I stop cutting but leave my blade intact and lift my holding hand up and move it to the middle of the ruler to make sure I have firm pressure as I continue to cut the strip. I repeat that process to give pressure to the end of the ruler as I finish my cut. I have not had any problems with the fabric or the ruler slipping when I have used this method. Also, make sure your rotary cutter blade is always straight up and down, not angled towards the ruler. Good Luck! I wish you success!

[Marta]

Check out some Youtubes on how to square-up your fabric. It makes a huge difference.

[Claire OneStitchAtATime]

Are you cutting folded yardage, by any chance? If so, I understand this can happen if the fabric is not folded straight along the grain. Be sure to line up your selvages first when you are folding the fabric & lightly press the fabric before cutting. Some teachers encourage folding the fabric in quarter lengthwise before cutting -- fold so that the selvages are together & then again so that the center fold is parallel to the selvages.

Also square up the edge of the fabric (line up selvages & lengthwise fold with lines on your cutting mat, & line up ruler with mat & fabric too) & cut off a sliver so you have a fabric edge perpendicular to the selvages before you start trying to cut strips to the right size.

Finally, people tell me it's easier if you make your fabric into manageable chunks first. So if it's more than a yard, cut it into yard-long hunks before trying to cut pieces to size.

I'm a new quilter too, though. Someone more experienced can probably be more specific.

[Doloris]

line up a line on your ruler along the folded edge of the fabric. if you are going to be cutting a lot of strips, I recommend the June Taylor Shape Cut ruler.

[MRoy]

Here's a video by Leah Day showing how to square up your fabric before cutting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcpzwJMVTbc

[auntiemern]

I was going to tell you the same thing Leah Day does in her tut. You have to get the fabric square, before cutting. Never depend on the cut edge to be straight. Line up the selvidge edges and move from the fabric from one side or the other until it is hanging straight. Make sure your ruler doesn't slip. Now cut away, and no more elbows.

[Terry L]

I recently asked this very question and was steered to a YouTube video by Leah Day about squaring up the fabric. Happy to say no more elbows . I see her link was posted here.

[Peggi]

The reason you get "elbows" is because the ruler is not perpendicular to the fold in the fabric. You need to make sure the ruler is exactly 90° to the fold.

[MartinaG]

What auntiemerm said. You must square your fabric or it won't lay correctly to cut without the dreaded V at the fold. When the fabric doesn't lay correctly in the first place, it doesn't matter how accurately you use the ruler.