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Member since 7/26/17
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Posted on: 11/30/17 0:14 AM ET
Quote:
If a woven fabric is only slightly off-grain, pin together the selvages and one cut edge, placing pins every few inches. Steam press the fabric starting at the selvages and pushing the fabric toward the fold with the iron.

http://www.sewing.org/files/guidelines/4_204_straightening_fabric_grain.pdf

I haven't heard this one before, how is it done?


Another question, does the technique for straightening the fabric grain (pulling the bias in opposite direction) apply to non-plain wovens (twills) , fabrics that have a surface characteristics, etc.
-- Edited on 11/30/17 at 0:26 AM --
  
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Posted on: 11/30/17 1:11 AM ET
From what I was taught years ago, almost any fabric that is a straight woven fabric can have the grain straightened this way. I have even done it with knits with fairly good results. But you do have to make sure that you are only pulling hard enough to straighten the grain and not so hard that you are distorting the fabric.

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Member since 3/11/09
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Posted on: 11/30/17 2:14 AM ET
In reply to weather
Back in the dark ages, aka the late 50s, when all the girls took Home Ec, we were taught to straighten a piece of cloth by having one of us at each end of a piece of fabric holding the 2 corners at our end, and pulling along the bias, alternating left side, right side. This was for fabric woven off grain which you really don't see much any more. Is that the question, or is it finding the straight of grain?
  
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Posted on: 11/30/17 7:00 AM ET
In reply to bunnykins
I just bought fabric 2 days ago at a reputable store and it was off grain, so it still does happen.
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height 5'2" bust 36, waist 31, hip 39.
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Member since 3/11/09
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Posted on: 11/30/17 9:52 AM ET
In reply to VivianZ
There really ought to be a law against selling off grain fabric, especially at full price. It's usually nothing but grief, especially if you don't have someone else around to help try to straighten it. I wish you luck with the piece - and a quiet word with the fabric seller.
  
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Posted on: 11/30/17 12:13 PM ET
Fabric becomes off grain as it is woven on rollers at the mill at high speeds. It then is further off grained when wound on to boards for retail. It is a PITA, but as stated before, one of the first things many were taught back in the day was to straighten the grain before laying out your pattern. It's one of those rules we would love to toss a side but really is the foundation for a well fitting, beautifully draped garment.
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Member since 5/2/09
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Posted on: 11/30/17 6:03 PM ET
If I did pull and tug on some fabric to try to straighten the grain, I would not trust it to always stay that way later, (after going through the washing machine and dryer) so I think I would toss it into the clothes dryer and washer afterwards to see what happened then, (after that too) before just cutting something out of it. Because it might return to how it was even, or maybe not. Better to know before you bother to cut something out of it, than afterwards. It's probably worth a try though.
  
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Posted on: 11/30/17 6:27 PM ET
Some weaves, like twills, are going to naturally pull offgrain. You see this in denim all the time... if you fold a piece of denim in half down the middle (following a warp thread), the corners will not match. In some cases, the manufacturer has deliberately added additional skew (the off-grainness) to help counter the natural skew of the weave: http://fashion-incubator.com/jeans-jeans-jeans/

Most fabrics these days come with a fairly hefty series of finishing steps. Most of the time, unless you're dealing with a fabric that is mostly unfinished, like pfd cottons, some wools and linens, but rarely any synthetics, if you straighten the grain as shown in that sewing.org article, and then launder the fabric, the off-grainness comes right back. So my rule for buying fabrics is that if they're much offgrain (excepting weaves where I expect some, like twill), that fabric is "leverite" -- as in "leave 'er right" there on the shelf, so I don't have to deal with it.

The controlling grain in wovens is the warp -- the direction parallel to the selvages. If the fabric isn't horribly offgrain, and you cut your fabric so the lengthwise grain arrows of your pattern are parallel to the selvage, your project is going to be pretty much ok. If you have to use a particular off-grain fabric, you can try to cut it with the (should be) horizontal (warp) grain balancing itself in the garment. For instance, you might cut a shirt front with the grainline parallel to the selvages, and straight up and down in the front of your shirt. If you cut so the right side has the warp threads rising SW to NE and the left side has the warp rise SE to NW, the two halves balance each other and the front won't want to twist over to one side. And you'd have to do the same in the back half of the shirt.

Or you might cut the front of a pullover top with the crossgrain rising SW to NE, and the back SE to NW, again counteracting the tendency to twist.
  
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Posted on: 11/30/17 8:25 PM ET
I was taught the same way-pull opposite ends of a woven fabric. There are some fabrics that are so off you may not be able to straighten them. In that case, cutting off the selvages may help. I would never use this on a knit as I would be afraid of stretching it out of shape. For knits, I definitely cut off the selvages that then cut out single pieces.
  
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Posted on: 11/30/17 8:37 PM ET
Oh boy, I will straighten woven fabric by pulling a widthwise thread and cutting along the line.
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