Straightening fabric which is off grain

[Elnnina]

I have a bolt of American Muslin  called  ‘Wide Perm Press Muslin’ so it is 90” wide which I have bought to use for toiles.

Yes it is lovely having it so wide, BUT I have a problem of the grain being off and not just a little.  I have tried tugging it from corner to corner to no affect.

So my question is this,  I am using this for toiles, and really need the grain on this muslin to line up with the grain lines on my pattern pieces.  If I line up my grain on the muslin with the grain on the pattern tissue, is this going to hang askew?

Please does anyone have any other ideas how to correct the skew on this.

I am rather well endowed with many unwanted lumps and bumps, and trying to get a decent fitting basic top is proving problematical.  In desperation I have been working on a Connie Crawford Sloper pattern for a shoulder princess seam - this sloper was featured in Threads Magazine December 2013/January 2014 and called ‘ Add a Princess Seam’ and the article refers to two of Connie’s Slopers,  one for a shoulder princess seam and one for the armhole princess seam. Having spent weeks/months with tissue and calico, I think I might have finally arrived at a top that might just be right.  I have my pattern tissue at the ‘tissue fitting stage’ and now need to make a toile in calico.  However I am rather concerned that if I go gaily cutting this out in the American muslin fabric which is so off grain, that with all the many seams on this pattern that something is not going to hang straight and hamper me even further.

Having consulted Claire Schaeffer’s Fabric Guide, she is saying ‘That most fabrics cannot be straightened because they have a heat-set finish, but a few woven from cotton and wool have no special finishes and can be straightened.
To straighten the ends of fabrics with heat-set  finishes, spread the fabric on a rectangular table.  Align the selvages or the lengthwise fold with one side of the table.  Using the table end or cutting board as a guide, mark the fabric end, trim on the marked line.

Hint.  If the end has a large slant and you trim it off you may be caught short on fabric.  Use chalk or a temporary marking pen to mark the straight end.’

So on reading Claires advice, and knowing that my Muslin is called Perm Press does this mean that the muslin has been heat treated, and if so how annoying.

I religiously straighten my fabrics, spending time pulling threads so I can get a straight line to cut on, this can be extremely tedious as the fibres tend to break.

Has  anyone got any advice on this?  I really would appreciate their help.  Thanks.

[b15erk]

This link may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKmo7vMo2aE&t=8s

It's hard work, but she gets it spot-on in the end!

Jessie

[UttaRetch]

I found this article that explains how the permanent press process works and it may help you to decide whether or not straigtening the grain is going to be possible.

[Elnnina]

Firstly Thank you so much to Jessie and UttaRetch, both articles so helpful.

Jessie, how on earth did you find such an interesting video clip going into so much detail in straightening fabric, and the person demonstrating made it look so easy in many ways.  When I pull threads, and I have done on chambray, it is never as easy as she makes it look, I find the threads are so soft they just break.  Unless I am missing something why was she using paper – looked like dot and cross – over her fabric and then putting her pattern in oak tag on top and drawing around this,  I also admired her skills with the rotary cutter  - oh if only it was that easy.  Surely it would have been easier to use the rotary cutter against the edge of the oak tag pattern piece.  Yes I do realise that in using the paper she was able to see at a glance whether her oak tag pattern was on the grain, but it did seem such a waste of paper.

I do in fact have various sizes of rotary cutters, started off with the one she was using, but I prefer a small blade, I find I have more control.

However watching this video it has reinforced my thinking that  it is really important that the fabric is straight, otherwise the finished garment is never going to hang properly.  What wasn’t mentioned was what do you do if   the fabric has been heat treated and thus will not straighten. 

A good work out for the arms though with all that stretching, so think of me when I am trying to straighten this 90” wide American muslin.

[b15erk]

It's a teaching video EN, and I've watched quite a few of them, they are so informative.  You're right the threads do break, but I try to get the next nearest one to pull.

Jessie