Cutting Fabric For A Quilt

The most important part of making a quilt is the cutting. Let me say that again, nothing is more important to do correctly than cutting fabric. It’s the part of quilting that requires the most precision. It’s the part that is easiest to mess up.  This post contains affiliate links, which means that I may earn a commission if you shop through the link.

Have I scared you away yet? No? Good! Yes, it’s the most important part of making a quilt. But it’s not hard. It takes patience. Accuracy. Precision. Attention to detail. But when done right, it sets the rest of the quilting process up for success.

Read on, to learn how to accurately cut fabric for your quilt.

The first step is to wash, dry and iron your fabric. There are quilters who choose not to wash fabric first. They’ve got good reasons for it. I choose to wash because some fabrics shrink differently than others and some fabrics bleed. I’d rather get that out of the way before I’ve put all the effort into cutting, piecing, layering, quilting and binding so I don’t have a ruined finished project.

Ironing each fabric individually sets you up for accurate cutting. Even if fabric has been washed, dried and ironed when it was first purchased and has then been folded up in a drawer for any length of time, I iron it again.

The tools for cutting fabric are a clear cutting ruler, a self-healing cutting mat, and a rotary cutter. My mat is 24’ by 36” and the ruler I use the most is 6” by 24”.

Cutting mats have measurement lines, you can ignore those. Seriously, flip your mat over and use the back. Mine is double sided, so I can’t demonstrate in my photos; but really, don’t worry about the lines on the mat. The measurement lines to use are the ones on the ruler.

Look at that blue polka dot fabric. It isn’t anywhere near the lines on the cutting mat. They don’t matter.

Fabric is generally 40-42 inches in width, so I work with it folded in half.

Please keep in mind, I am right handed. Nearly all directions that follow will be exactly opposite for lefties.

Start with fabric folded in half, with the fold on the same side of the table as you, and the selvage edges matched together on the opposite side of the table.

The first step in cutting is to trim away the frayed edges, and to square up the piece of fabric. Place the ruler on top of the fabric, lining the ruler up against the fold, as close to the right side as possible. You want to trim away the least amount of scrap as possible (fabric is expensive!) but at the same time, making sure you are trimming through both layers of fabric and that all of the frayed part is removed.

Hold the ruler in place with your left hand, line the rotary cutter up with the right edge of the ruler, and cut, using a steady pressure and seamless movement all the way across the fabric.

Move to the other side of the table (so the fold is at the top) or carefully turn the fabric over, making sure to keep the recently cut edges together. You are now working on the left side of the fabric.

Using the measurements on the ruler, line the ruler up to the correct dimensions (this example is 2½ inches), and always make sure you are lined up against the fold of the fabric.

Cut as before. You’ve made your first cut and now have a strip 2½ wide and 40ish inches long! Woo hoo! You got this!

Work with just one piece of a fabric at a time, until you are comfortable with what you are doing. Once you feel ready, you can cut two pieces of fabric (4 layers of fabric) at a time. Just make sure the folds of both fabrics are exactly parallel to each other, and both match a line on the ruler at the same time.

When working with two pieces of fabric at a time, I move to the other side of the table, rather than flipping the fabric.

The quilt pattern I am working on needs both 2½ inch strips, and 4 7/8 inch squares. So I cut most of my fabric into 5” strips, trimmed a 4 7/8 inch square off the end and then cut the remaining strip in half the long way, to create two 2½ inch strips.

I’m making a queen size bed quilt, so that’s only about half of the fabric cut, and a huge pile of scraps to toss.

Do you still have questions about cutting fabric?  Shoot me an email darcyquilts @ gmail.com or leave a comment below.

The next in the Basics Series- Piecing is available now!