Fabric Laying+Cutting

  • Having space at home is often tricky for laying up fabric, but the most economical fabric lays are ‘single flat’ fabric lay. These are commonly used for ‘Cut x 1’ garments, large pattern pieces, and asymmetrical styles, but are beneficial for creating less fabric waste. For most styles, ‘folded’ fabric lays are provided for pattern placement and convenience. A good trick if you need to work with a flat lay, fold one edge of the fabric over part way, not to the full selvedge.
  • If your fabric is soft or slippery and moves a lot while laying up, try adding a layer of light paper (tissue or old newspaper *if the print does not transfer to your fabric) beneath your fabric and place the pattern on top of the fabric and pin all layers (pattern, fabric and paper). Cut through all layers (fabric and paper beneath); this will help stabilise your fabric and make it easy to cut. This technique is an industry practice for soft or silky fabrics, and rarely does it dull the sharpness of your fabric scissors! Just don’t cut cardboard with your fabric scissors.