Top 10 Tips For Cutting Fabrics Accurately And Efficiently

Here's a simple guide on how to cut fabric. For seasoned students, you'll hopefully have remembered these from college. But for those of you new to the technique these tips will guide you so you cut accurately and efficiently every time avoiding costly mistakes such as wasted time and fabrics.

Here you go then:

1. Always lay your fabric on a table or cutting mat on the floor. A table is best as it's better for your back and comfort. Make sure you can access all sides of the table to reach the fabric.
2. Use and iron if necessary to iron out any wrinkles and creases so your fabric is flat. Make sure you then align the straight and cross grains exactly so they are perpendicular. If your pattern pieces are wrinkled you can use an iron to flatten them too.
3. If your fabric has a directional print or nap (like velvet or corduroy), pay extra attention to how you’re laying out your pattern pieces so every piece is facing the right direction. It all need to match up. The same principle goes when matching stripes and plaids.

4. Decide whether to either pin the pattern to your fabric and then cut around the pattern pieces or to place weights on or pin pattern, trace around pattern pieces and mark up the fabric and then remove the pattern and cut tracing marks.

5. When marking fabrics make sure you use a good quality marking tool such as tailor's chalk, chalk wheel or a disappearing ink pen.
6. Mark your cut lines clearly so you can follow them easily. If you are using a pattern or template then use enough pins to pin it to the fabric and secure it accurately, but don't use too many or you'll find your fabric bunches up. And make sure you use sharp pins.
7. Make sure you are using sharp shears and never use the same ones that you use for cutting paper. Keep you fabric shears for FABRIC only!
8. When you make cuts, don't complete the cut by closing the blades but stop just before the tips of the blade close. This will avoid you making clunky cuts and edges that aren't smooth.
9. Grip the shears firmly when making your cuts and cut with confidence following your cut lines or template edge. Remember, you want everything to remain as flat as possible, so keep the lower blade of the scissors against the surface by keeping the bottom blade in constant contact with the table or cutting board.
10. When you need to change direction walk around the table and cut from the new direction. Never move the fabric as this can distort what you've already laid out

So there you have our top 10 tips for accurate fabric cutting to help you progress and develop your fashion studio skills.