 Hey everybody, it's Erin and welcome back to style sewing me. We're going to talk about cutting fabric today. Cutting your fabric seems like a very simple and straightforward thing, but there are a few things that you need to learn. I actually kind of skipped this and thinking I kind of knew it all, and let's just say my stretchy skirt did not stretch, and I could not even get it over one leg. So I'm going to show you what I failed to learn when I first started sewing. Your fabric usually comes on a bolt. It's a long rectangular cardboard base with your fabric wrapped around it, and usually it's doubled over and wrapped right sides together or right sides facing, meaning it's the side of the fabric that is meant to be seen is facing each other. And what you see is the inside of the fabric. So when the fabric cutter unrolls the fabric and cuts your fabric, they are simply just going to fold it back up and head it to your artichivity. So when you get your fabric, the first thing that you want to do is pre-treat your fabric. And what do I mean by that? I mean you need to wash your fabric or dry clean it. According to the fabric manufacturer's instructions, do not skip this step. Matter of fact, as soon as you get your fabric, go ahead and throw it in the rock wash or send it to the cleaners. You want to make sure that it gets its initial shrinking out of the way. Because if you cut and sew this fabric together and then it shrinks on you, it's not going to fit. It's going to be warped and you've just wasted your time, and you've wasted your money. So go ahead and pre-treat your fabric. So now that you've got your fabric pre-treated and ready to go, you are typically going to lay your fabric out right sides together and with a fold. And I'll show you that in a second with the fold facing you and the selvage edges furthest away from you. The selvage edges is the finished edge of your fabric. And you don't want to use the cut sides, the meaning the ends, where the cutter cuts your fabric because they're the brush they're doing this all day. They don't cut it exactly straight across like they should. So your guide needs to be the selvage. I'll get to that in a second. When laying out your fabric, if your fabric is wrinkled, go ahead and iron it according to the proper iron standing. If you're not sure, start low and then take it up a little higher as needed. And always use a pressing cloth if you're not sure. It protects your iron and it protects your fabric. So just to recap, you want to pre-treat your fabric and you want to make sure that it is wrinkled free. I've done both on my fabric. Now, when I was talking about the selvage edges, I'm talking about this edge up here. And a great way to determine if it is the selvage edge of your fabric is there will usually be a white band or some sort of band and sometimes there's the fabric manufacturers printed information. That's a tail-tale sign that that is the selvage edge. And when I say right sides together, meaning this is the outside of the fabric. And so it is the right side. I want it facing each other. And you can see here, my selvage edges are lined up all the way across. And you can see here, especially on this side, you can see that my cut edges are not straight. So I said, don't use your cut edges as a guide because if you do, it will misalign your selvage edges. So always use your selvage edges as a guide to lining up your fabric. And here is the fold of your fabric. It's just simply the folded edge. Now, your pattern instructions usually give a cutting layout. And in this instruction, it shows you based on the width of your fabric best practice on how to place your pattern pieces. This is a guide. And you don't want to start cutting before you're sure that you have enough fabric. Because I personally always have to make fitting adjustments. I usually always have to add at least two inches to the length of my skirts and pants. And at least an inch to two inches to the length of my bodice. And when I'm lengthening a pattern piece, sometimes that widens it as well. And that will definitely throw off the layout that is recommended in your pattern pieces. In your pattern instructions, because remember that those instructions are based on the default pattern piece. So if you know that you're going to need to make adjustments to your pattern pieces, before you start cutting, then I would suggest you go ahead and make those fitting adjustments to your pattern piece. And then fold your fabric up as you need to and place your pattern pieces on your fabric. Play with different configurations before you ever cut your fabric, because once you cut your fabric, you're screwed. So now that we've got our fabric laid out and ready to go, we have our pattern piece here. And I just simply cut out a short sleeve pattern piece from the first pattern that I grabbed. So let's talk about a couple of things. We are looking at what is called a grain line. This is an arrow line that's running through the middle of this pattern. The grain line needs to be parallel to the selvage edges of your fabric. And the reason it needs to do so is because it will affect the way your fabric lays after it's been cut on your body. So I have a cutting mat that is that completely covers my cutting table. So it's really, really helpful when trying to line up my grain lines. So first thing that I'm going to do is place my pattern weights on the edges of my pattern. And these are just simply washers that I've got from Home Depot. Of various sizes. This helps keep my pattern in place. Some people like to pin their pattern piece to their fabric. But if I know, sometimes I need to do a little jiggling around of my pattern. And it's much easier to do so with these instead of pinning and unpitting my fabric. I I bald the grain line to the parallel of my selvage edges. But I'm going to confirm that by using a ruler. I'm going to place my ruler at the edge of my, at the top edge of my fabric. And I'm going to see where it hits. Actually, I'm going to place it at the top edge of my table because I know my table's not moving anywhere. And I want to see exactly where my selvage line, my grain line hits. My grain line hits at exactly inch 17. Now it's easy, easier for me to line my grain line up with a, even, even line on my ruler. Because it just makes it easier for me to keep up with it. We just got lucky this time that it's already in place. So as I move my ruler down this grain line to check, I want to make sure that this grain line is hitting inch 17 the entire way across. So I'm going to measure a couple of few inches over. Now my grain line is hitting an eighth of an inch lower than inch 17. So I need to raise this pattern piece to line up with line 17. And see how I'm just very slightly adjusting the pattern piece. And I'm going to check the end here. And it's lining up with 17. And I'm going to go back and check my starting point. And it's lining up with 17. That's the only thing that you need to do. It's a very important step. Please don't skip this, especially on non-stretch fabric. So now I'm ready to cut. Now I have two pairs of scissors here. I have my paper scissors that I use to cut out my pattern with. And I have my fabric scissors, which I use to cut my fabric. I do not make these two ever. And it's actually a good idea for you to keep your fabric scissors away from your family. Because if there anything like me when I was younger, I would grab these shiny pretty scissors to cut paper and whatever I felt like cutting, because they were just so pretty. Well, I didn't know until I started sewing. So keep your fabric scissors away from your family. So I'm going to take my fabric scissors and I'm going to start cutting. When you start to cut, watch, I'm simply guiding my scissors and I'm using short, comfortable paces in cutting my fabric. Don't ever feel like you need to rush. My wrist is dropped. I'm not up here. I'm down here. And if you need to go ahead and place a hand gently on your pattern piece to keep it in line because it does sent a shift. Now, it's very good practice to not lift your scissors from your fabric when you're cutting around corners, but it does take practice. But don't feel bad if you need to lift your scissors and reposition yourself. The most important thing here is that you cut your pattern pieces out accurately. So I'm coming around a corner. So I'm going to cut a little bit past my point and then I'm going to shift my wrist. And I'm going to cut. You're simply guiding my scissors again. I'm not pushing my scissors because that's going to wrinkle up my fabric and distort my cutting. Now, simply because I am trying to work around a camera in a tripod, I'm actually going to separate myself, but I normally would not. I'd simply just turn and continue cutting. It's nothing into the world if you have to pick up your scissors. You can see I'm not going any faster than I'm comfortable with. You're not trying to be nobody. You're not trying to rush. And sometimes I'm getting a little bit of a twisting and turning too much, like I was because I said I'm trying to work around a tripod. I'll just go ahead and cut off the edge of the fabric, just like I did there. Remove your excess fabric and voila, there you go. So now that you've cut out your pattern piece with your fabric, you are going to make sure to transfer those markings. And I will show that to you in the next video. So make sure that you subscribe to my channel so you make sure you're not to miss that update. If you like this tutorial, make sure to give it a thumbs up, comment below if you have any questions, and again to hit that subscribe button, make sure you don't miss any of my sewing tutorials. Make sure to visit me over at StyleSoapMe because I have lots more to show you. I'll see you later. Bye.