**Crafting with Long Narrow Rulers: A Guide to Working with Fabric**

When working with long narrow strips of fabric, it's essential to have the right tools and techniques to ensure accuracy and precision. One of my favorite rulers for this purpose is a 6 1/2 inch by 24 inch ruler. This long and narrow design allows me to measure and cut fabric with ease, making it perfect for projects like binding quilts or creating straps for tote bags.

**Preparing Fabric for Cutting**

Before starting your project, it's crucial to prepare your fabric by starching and pressing it. I recommend spraying starch on the back side of the fabric, as this allows me to avoid any shiny or glittery surfaces that might interfere with my ironing process. By starching the fabric, you'll create a better working surface and make it easier to cut accurately.

**The Difference Between Ironing and Pressing**

When working with fabric, it's essential to understand the difference between ironing and pressing. Ironing typically involves applying pressure and swiping the iron back and forth to remove wrinkles, whereas pressing is a gentler technique that involves using the heat of the iron to smooth out the fabric without applying excessive pressure. When ironing clothes, we often use this technique to get rid of wrinkles, but when working with fabric, we need to be more precise.

**Pressing Fabric: A Gentle Touch**

To press your fabric, simply take a deep breath and gently press the iron up and down along the desired line or crease. Avoid swiping or applying too much pressure, as this can skew the fabric and ruin the accuracy of your cut. By using a gentle pressing motion, you'll create crisp folds and sharp edges without distorting the fabric.

**Cutting Fabric with Precision**

To cut your fabric accurately, it's essential to use a ruler that provides a straight edge. In my case, I use my 6 1/2 inch by 24 inch ruler to guide me as I cut along the parallel sides of my fabric. When cutting, always start with one end and work your way through the fabric in small increments, ensuring that each cut is precise and accurate.

**Straightening Edges**

Before cutting, it's crucial to straighten out the edges of your fabric. This involves folding the fabric along a crease line to create a sharp edge, which I achieve by using my ruler as a guide. By doing so, I ensure that each cut will be crisp and clean, without any stray fibers or unevenness.

**Cutting Parallel Sides**

Once you've straightened out your edges, it's time to start cutting the parallel sides of your fabric. In this case, I'll flip my fabric over and line up one edge with the folded crease. Then, using my rotary cutter, I'll make a precise cut along that line, ensuring that both edges are identical.

**Finalizing Your Cut**

After cutting two parallel sides, you'll need to repeat the process for the remaining sides of your fabric. This ensures that all four sides are cut accurately and precisely, resulting in a finished product with clean and crisp edges. By following these steps, you'll be able to work with long narrow strips of fabric with confidence and accuracy.

**The Benefits of Working with Long Narrow Rulers**

Working with long narrow rulers offers several benefits when it comes to cutting fabric. Firstly, it allows for more precise measurements and cuts, ensuring that your project turns out accurately and consistently. Secondly, these rulers provide a clean and sharp edge, which is essential for creating professional-looking results.

**Conclusion**

When working with long narrow strips of fabric, having the right tools and techniques can make all the difference. By using a 6 1/2 inch by 24 inch ruler, starching and pressing your fabric, and understanding the differences between ironing and pressing, you'll be able to cut your fabric with precision and accuracy. Remember to straighten out your edges, cut parallel sides carefully, and repeat the process for all four sides of your fabric. With practice and patience, you'll become a master cutter in no time!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's Vanessa from crafty gemini.com today we're going to cover some basic cutting tools and techniques for your general sewing and quilting crafts I recommend a rotary cutter to cut your Fabrics this particular one has a 45 mm blade and that has to do with the size of the blade these come in all different shapes and sizes and there's smaller blades and even larger ones this particular one in order to reveal the blade you press it in and down and the blade pops out up top and then secure it back up with the safety Shield you press in and up the rotary cutter goes hand inand with the rotary mat you have to make sure that you use these two together the rotary cutter blade is so sharp that if you use it on any other surface you're going to wreck both your blade and your mat the rotary mats come in different sizes for example this little one here only measures about 6 in by 8 in and this would be good for little projects like inches or fabric postcards the next one I have here measures 12 in x 18 in and this would be good for a beginner to start off with if you have a small workspace area and then this one is the one I like to keep on my table and it measures 18 in x 24 in and this actually is my favorite one I can work on all kinds of projects no matter the size to accompany your rotary cutter and your rotary mat I suggest you get your hands on some different rulers to start off with you're probably only going to need maybe one or two of different sizes to work on different projects I'm going to show you some examples of the ones I use this little one here is great for really tiny projects it only measures 4 and 1/2 in square the next one is a great beginner ruler this one you'll be able to um get a lot of different projects done since it's longwise here and it measures 6 in by 12 in you'll be able to even cut long strips of fabric and at the same time cut smaller pieces as well the next one I have here a lot of people like these squared rulers this one is 9 and 1/2 in square and it's a lot bigger for projects that require you to cut maybe 6 in square or 7 in square when it's an exact Square this would be a great ruler to have since it's clear also you'll be able to see the fabric right underneath to make sure you're cutting your exact size this long narrow ruler measures 6 and 1/2 in by 24 in and this is actually my favorite ruler to use when I'm working with long narrow strips of fabric for example when I'm cutting out the fabric to do a binding on a quilt or to make straps for a tote hey it's Vanessa from crafty gemini.com and now I'm going to show you the difference between ironing and pressing your fabric before you start working on your actual project the first thing you want to do to your fabric is starch it what I like to do is to starch my Fabric and then press it this gives me a better working area and it makes it a lot easier to cut the fabric so I just spray it and I tend to spray my starch on the back side of the fabric because for a lot of my projects I work with fabric that has glitter or different shiny things on the other side and I don't want my iron hitting that surface okay so I recommend you press on the back back side of the fabric this is the wrong side that's the right side after you start your fabric what you want to do is press your fabric notice I said press and not iron okay the difference between ironing and pressing is that when we iron our clothes we tend to place our iron down and put some pressure on it and we swipe in every direction in order to get the creases out when we're working with fabric we don't want to use this technique okay what you want to do is literally press so you want to take your iron and just press up and down up and down do not swipe okay that tends to skew the fabric all right so we want our fabric nice and crisp but you still want to be able to get those creases up so if I just continue to do this across my entire piece just like that and now I have a perfectly pressed piece of fabric so now we're ready to practice and start cutting our first piece of fabric the smaller your piece of fabric the easier it's going to be for you to work with as far as cutting goes so I recommend that you fold your fabric now at this crease here of the fold line that's a guaranteed straight edge and whenever we're cutting you want to make sure you're lining up one of the straight lines on your ruler with at least two straight lines on your piece of fabric in this case the first thing I'm going to do is to straighten off both edges okay when you cut we cut parallel sides one after the other for instance I wouldn't cut this side and then cut this side okay I want to cut here the parallel side then I'll turn it and cut this side and then it's corresponding parallel side so the first thing we need to do to this piece of fabric is to straighten off the edges okay so here you see it's a little bit rough and we have a piece sticking out there I want to make sure that this is a nice clean straight edge so what I'm going to do now is line up this straight line here on that fold of my fabric which I said earlier was a guaranteed straight edge so I know that that's straight therefore I know that this line is now straight I'll take my rotary cutter and always cut with the Ry cutter away from you okay you don't want to cut toward you you always want to cut away I cut that I leave my hand on the ruler and I pull away the excess fabric to make sure I got everything okay that's a straight edge now now I want to cut the parallel side so in this case it'll be confusing for me to cut this way so what I do is I flip it over now I line up my ruler again with a straight edge of that fold with firm pressure again on the ruler cut pull away the excess Fabric and now I have two straight edges the next thing to do is to cut the other two corresponding parallel sides so I'll turn it this way see how we have some fabric sticking out there I want it to be straight now I'm no longer have a fold down here now I have a straight edge that I just cut so I know that that's straight so I'll line up one of the lines on my ruler on that straight edge and the same thing is going to be up here because that's the other side that I previously cut as well and I know that those are both straight so again take my rotary cutter cut pull away the excess Fabric and that's a perfect straight edge now I flip it over and cut the corresponding parallel side same thing line it up with that straight edge make sure it matches the straight edge up top rotary cutter cut pull away the excess Fabric and now I have two perfect pieces they're all crisp and cut and ready to get started with the projecthey it's Vanessa from crafty gemini.com today we're going to cover some basic cutting tools and techniques for your general sewing and quilting crafts I recommend a rotary cutter to cut your Fabrics this particular one has a 45 mm blade and that has to do with the size of the blade these come in all different shapes and sizes and there's smaller blades and even larger ones this particular one in order to reveal the blade you press it in and down and the blade pops out up top and then secure it back up with the safety Shield you press in and up the rotary cutter goes hand inand with the rotary mat you have to make sure that you use these two together the rotary cutter blade is so sharp that if you use it on any other surface you're going to wreck both your blade and your mat the rotary mats come in different sizes for example this little one here only measures about 6 in by 8 in and this would be good for little projects like inches or fabric postcards the next one I have here measures 12 in x 18 in and this would be good for a beginner to start off with if you have a small workspace area and then this one is the one I like to keep on my table and it measures 18 in x 24 in and this actually is my favorite one I can work on all kinds of projects no matter the size to accompany your rotary cutter and your rotary mat I suggest you get your hands on some different rulers to start off with you're probably only going to need maybe one or two of different sizes to work on different projects I'm going to show you some examples of the ones I use this little one here is great for really tiny projects it only measures 4 and 1/2 in square the next one is a great beginner ruler this one you'll be able to um get a lot of different projects done since it's longwise here and it measures 6 in by 12 in you'll be able to even cut long strips of fabric and at the same time cut smaller pieces as well the next one I have here a lot of people like these squared rulers this one is 9 and 1/2 in square and it's a lot bigger for projects that require you to cut maybe 6 in square or 7 in square when it's an exact Square this would be a great ruler to have since it's clear also you'll be able to see the fabric right underneath to make sure you're cutting your exact size this long narrow ruler measures 6 and 1/2 in by 24 in and this is actually my favorite ruler to use when I'm working with long narrow strips of fabric for example when I'm cutting out the fabric to do a binding on a quilt or to make straps for a tote hey it's Vanessa from crafty gemini.com and now I'm going to show you the difference between ironing and pressing your fabric before you start working on your actual project the first thing you want to do to your fabric is starch it what I like to do is to starch my Fabric and then press it this gives me a better working area and it makes it a lot easier to cut the fabric so I just spray it and I tend to spray my starch on the back side of the fabric because for a lot of my projects I work with fabric that has glitter or different shiny things on the other side and I don't want my iron hitting that surface okay so I recommend you press on the back back side of the fabric this is the wrong side that's the right side after you start your fabric what you want to do is press your fabric notice I said press and not iron okay the difference between ironing and pressing is that when we iron our clothes we tend to place our iron down and put some pressure on it and we swipe in every direction in order to get the creases out when we're working with fabric we don't want to use this technique okay what you want to do is literally press so you want to take your iron and just press up and down up and down do not swipe okay that tends to skew the fabric all right so we want our fabric nice and crisp but you still want to be able to get those creases up so if I just continue to do this across my entire piece just like that and now I have a perfectly pressed piece of fabric so now we're ready to practice and start cutting our first piece of fabric the smaller your piece of fabric the easier it's going to be for you to work with as far as cutting goes so I recommend that you fold your fabric now at this crease here of the fold line that's a guaranteed straight edge and whenever we're cutting you want to make sure you're lining up one of the straight lines on your ruler with at least two straight lines on your piece of fabric in this case the first thing I'm going to do is to straighten off both edges okay when you cut we cut parallel sides one after the other for instance I wouldn't cut this side and then cut this side okay I want to cut here the parallel side then I'll turn it and cut this side and then it's corresponding parallel side so the first thing we need to do to this piece of fabric is to straighten off the edges okay so here you see it's a little bit rough and we have a piece sticking out there I want to make sure that this is a nice clean straight edge so what I'm going to do now is line up this straight line here on that fold of my fabric which I said earlier was a guaranteed straight edge so I know that that's straight therefore I know that this line is now straight I'll take my rotary cutter and always cut with the Ry cutter away from you okay you don't want to cut toward you you always want to cut away I cut that I leave my hand on the ruler and I pull away the excess fabric to make sure I got everything okay that's a straight edge now now I want to cut the parallel side so in this case it'll be confusing for me to cut this way so what I do is I flip it over now I line up my ruler again with a straight edge of that fold with firm pressure again on the ruler cut pull away the excess Fabric and now I have two straight edges the next thing to do is to cut the other two corresponding parallel sides so I'll turn it this way see how we have some fabric sticking out there I want it to be straight now I'm no longer have a fold down here now I have a straight edge that I just cut so I know that that's straight so I'll line up one of the lines on my ruler on that straight edge and the same thing is going to be up here because that's the other side that I previously cut as well and I know that those are both straight so again take my rotary cutter cut pull away the excess Fabric and that's a perfect straight edge now I flip it over and cut the corresponding parallel side same thing line it up with that straight edge make sure it matches the straight edge up top rotary cutter cut pull away the excess Fabric and now I have two perfect pieces they're all crisp and cut and ready to get started with the project\n"