The Sewing Place
The Emporia => In the wardrobe => Patterns Discussion => Topic started by: Lulu on March 31, 2018, 00:12:17 AM
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Just wondering what everybody uses when cutting out their patterns?
With a little one crawling around, I'm hoping to minimise the use of pins..so was thinking of trying fabric weights with a rotary cutter?
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Yes and no. Best to cut during nap time or bedtime when little one isn't there to distract you or grab your ankle and especially if like some ladies you cut on the floor. It's very easy to slip with a rotary cutter if you get distracted and divert your eyes. Avoiding pins is a good idea. :pin: If you're able to sew on smooth flooring, tile, laminate, wood, etc. it's much easier to find any pins that drop while constructing. :pin: :pin: :pin:
My little ones are 4 footed and furry and I keep them elsewhere when I cut. :meow: :ninja: :meow: I use a rotary cutter and weights, which on bigger pieces is just my other rulers. I love using the rotary cutter. I have some smaller ones for tighter curves and use little pointed scissors for tight inside corners.
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I have used a rotary cutter with "weights" for years. My weights tend to be my various rulers. If you look in my last post (24Feb) in my Diary here you will see what I use. When I first started using the rotary cutter to cut out patterns I was not happy about it. I felt like I didn't have good control but after many years of doing it that way I wouldn't consider using scissors and pins ever again.
"weights" (https://thesewingplace.org.uk/index.php/topic,3232.0.html)
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Don't forget, @Lulu that if you use a rotary cutter you will need a suitable surface for cutting on as you don't want to wreck your table or knacker your blade. Large cutting mats are very expensive but someone may know of a suitable alternative to use.
With regard to pins, you can't avoid them completely when sewing. I would recommend a magnetic pin dish (sorry, can't do links on Kindle). It keeps the pins together if it ends up on the floor and you can do a sweep over the floor to find stray pins or needles. For holding bits together when sewing Wonder Clips can be a useful alternative to pins.
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Never used a rotary cutter for patterns only for quilting. A good pair of scissors and pins. If it’s a simple pattern and jersey I’ll use whatever is at hand to weight the pieces down.
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For me a rotary cutter is more dangerous than pins around kids (or any distractions). My fingers and tablecloth have suffered enough when alone.
I have pins with big coloured flower heads so easy to spot when you drop them, also multiple pin cushions so there is always somewhere to stick them and not leave on the table.
You'll need pins anyway when making up.
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I use a rotary cutter and acrylic ruler for patchwork pieces, and for cutting a strip of binding, bias or straight, but for cutting out garment patterns then it's shears and scissors (Fiskars shears for the lighter fabrics and Ernest Wright scissors for the heavier stuff).
I do use pins, the type with a bobble end - glass is better than plastic if they happen to come into contact with a hot iron! If it's a delicate fabric I try to keep them within the seam allowance, but honestly I can't see how the pattern doesn't move around if it's not pinned down. The other advantage of pinning is that each piece stays with it's pattern piece until you are ready to use it. A pile of cut put pieces of fabric with loose cut out pattern pieces is, IMO, just asking to get muddled up.
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I would recommend a magnetic pin dish
Don't forget to keep anything magnetic away from computerised machines.
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Always use pins and shears. I don't understand this recent fad for using a rotary cutter for garments. I like to keep the pieces with the pattern on till it's used same as @BrendaP. That way it,s not going to go out of shape if it's delicate, keeps it stabilised.
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I nearly always use weights and shears, the only time I use pins is on little fiddly bits my weights are too big to use on.
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I seem to use everything except weights. Pins plus rotary cutter for larger pieces - I also like to keep the pattern piece with the fabric until I use it. Plus, I find it easier to mark darts and dots and such when the pattern is still attached at several points.
I use pins and scissors for smaller pieces or fiddly cut-outs. I started using the rotary cutter for patterns soon after I bought it for quilting. It just seemed to go so much faster than using shears. Occasionally I'll use a quilting ruler with it for a long straight seam but freehand works quite well once you're used to it.
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I almost always use pdf patterns, so the paper is relatively stiff and I draw around the pattern with chalk or water soluble pen. I hold the pattern down with anything that is lying around.
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I swear by a rotary cutter, weights and mat. Since I swapped to this method about 2 years ago I actually enjoy sewing so much more as the cutting stage no longer feels like a chore.
Exactly! It's actually more fun now. I like laying out and cutting the pattern more than the actual sewing. Always have. Plus I've got Carpal Tunnel both wrists and the rotary cutter, used correctly, puts a lot less physical stress on my wrists. So does using weights rather than pins.
As Ploshkin said a good mat is essential.
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I started using brightly coloured plastic headed pins when my chldren arrived. So much easier to find when dropped. I got into the habit of closing a rotary cutter when I put it down. I've never got on with weights. Swooshing your sewing area with a magnet after each session might help pick up any strays.
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I swear by a rotary cutter, weights and mat. Since I swapped to this method about 2 years ago I actually enjoy sewing so much more as the cutting stage no longer feels like a chore.
Oh I so agree! I'm truly left-handed so cutting out with even proper left handed shears was so difficult for me, I can't seem to cut on a straight line. The rotary cutter was miraculous for me. My hands also tends to seize up when using scissors and shears too much so again, a bonus. I wouldn't be without my cutters now.
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I absolutely hate rotary cutting, and only use it when I want lots of straight lines...which is surely the point? I see no advantage to having to keep shifting the dress fabric along a much smaller cutting board than I habitually use, especially with shifty fabric. No wonder so many of you hate cutting out, with all these excessively time consuming methods [tracing? ick]
Obviously, any problems with dodgy hands may be eased by using them- personally I find that they make my arthritic mits hurt way more
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I love using my fabric shears - they make such a wonderful noise! I'm also not very good with a rotary cutter, even when I'm cutting straight lines.
That said, I can certainly see the possible benefits if you have arthritic hands, or small hands, or some other reason that scissors are uncomfortable.
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I use rotary cutter with pins.....
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Rotary cutters must be a new fangled thing for dressmaking as well as quilting...(I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong) it’s like the new fangled way of pricing fabric.. who the hell thought of pricing dressmaking fabric by the fat quarter or half meters!..drives me nuts!.. all these new trendy sewers who thing they’ve invented everything...Rant over. ;)
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I've never used weights until recently when fabric I had resisted pins, so since I have no weights I used every pair of scissors I had, which worked very well. I've looked at the price of weights and more or less decided that next time I go in B&Q I'll get a large set of some cheap spanners, they should work nicely!
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You could make up some little dry rice filled bags to work as weights. Big ones and little ones, round ones and long ones.
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Trust me, even if I wanted to they would never get done, can't wear them. I even used Etsy to get a loose thread/bits holder, things like that are not my bag.
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It has been interesting reading everyone's opinions on this! Thank you all for your advice.
I take your points about rotary cutters being quite dangerous on their own, and with the mats, quite expensive.
And also, that weights might not even be necessary with a few handy bits nearby. Or you could make your own (such a good idea @Fajita )
I also realise that pins are probably going to be the best thing to secure fabric for making clothes, so I'd never be able to avoid them entirely.
I was able to buy a magnetic pin dish at our sewing shop (thanks @Ploshkin ) and some flat head flower pins (as used by @Bogwoppit ), so these should help keep them easy to find and all in one place. As she also said, I'll just have to be careful to not leave them on the table and always put them back in the dish.
I'm going to see how I do with just those for now, and invest in the cutter and mat in the future (given that we've just had the big outlay of the machine). They do look impressively quick, from the videos I've seen on YouTube.
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I have a large cutting board so I can cut out pretty much any pattern piece without moving fabric.
As for tracing, I hate it. But I have no choice. We aren't all as lucky as to be able to wear something out of the packet. I have to make many adjustments and I can't afford to buy many copies of the pattern to do that.
Oh lord not much fits me straight up-but then I now wear looser styles, and a lot of stretch fabrics which help a lot! When I DO make pattern alterations...I alter the pattern. It's just paper, I chop it and tape bits in...and there we are, ready to go.
Personally, choosing the patterns that will pretty much work for my lumpy weird shape saves a lot of fuss. If I decided to always go for styles that just DON'T accommodate my bag of spuds body, then I'd have a lot of changes to make too.
Lol I'll just carry on doing things the easy way, ignoring perfectionism, and enjoy the cutting out yay!
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This is one of the reasons that I love pdf patterns. :)
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Yes - I'm sure I've seen them for at least one of the big 4, but I can't find any now. :[
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I have a large cutting board so I can cut out pretty much any pattern piece without moving fabric.
My 36" x 24" cutting mat, which lives on top of my desk wouldn't be big enough for lots of things - dresses, trousers - to be cut in one go. Apart from the price of very big mats, anything bigger would have to live under the bed, be hauled out, dragged downstairs and plonked onto the dining table.
Re weights versus pins:
My dining table is 2.3 metres long when fully extended, but even so some patterns require more than that amount of fabric which has to be shunted along whilst laying out all the pieces. How do you manage that without using pins?
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As for tracing, I hate it. But I have no choice. We aren't all as lucky as to be able to wear something out of the packet. I have to make many adjustments and I can't afford to buy many copies of the pattern to do that.
I have a growing boy so I'm constantly tracing the next size up.
Have you tried using a needle point tracing wheel - put the paper you want to mark underneath the pattern and wheel away. I find it's very quick - I don't even bother going over it in pen unless I need fitting adjusments, just cut along the dotted line.
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If anyone has issues with hands or back it could be worth trying electric shears. I got a black and decker rechargeable one (needs a new blade now). It’s quick, and has the bonus that floaty fabric moves less. I tried rotary cutters but it drove me nuts.
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I use a combination of weights and pins for cutting out, and my trusty Ernest Wright scissors. I'm not very good with a rotary cutter, and stick to cutting straight lines with it (bias binding).
My weights are the small, heavy, glass jars that my moisturiser used to come in. I fill them with buttons, so they solve a storage problem too!
When the children were young, I've often sewed late into the night. It's the only way to stop little fingers 'investigating'!
Jessie
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My attitude to cutting out has been transformed by the revelation late in life that I could trace around pattern pieces and then cut without the need for pins to distort the fabric and tear the pattern pieces.
I cut out on the floor (no other option) - lay out pieces, draw round them with something suitably non draggy ( a friction pen for wovens, a felt tip dotted around the outline of the piece on knits and my ultra glam pound shop metallic silver Sharpie on black fabric), remove the pattern piece, then cut out aiming to keep to the inside of the pen marks. Any bits of pen left can be trimmed as you go.
My pattern weights are usually tins of sardines as they're nice and flat but if we've eaten them all then I just use the nearest handful of paperback books.
I can't imagine ever going back to pins again.
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I use pattern weights and china markers on fabric. I weigh and trace. Cut the china marks off.
I use the dressmaker cast iron ones. I have 4 regular sizes, 2 smaller and 2 larger. I use a variety of shears to achieve my cuts in the least amount of work possible.
With kids, I have always had a no go zone around them. With my son, it was where the leaf of the treadle opened, and with the industrials it doesn't work, lol. My daughter ignores it, so I have duck tape on the floor (dedicated space) in an X where she can stand at each machine and station. It's hit and miss, but I don't run them off, just make sure that they know the machine can hurt them, and I let it go full bore and let the kids go full throttle, once. Usually was enough to keep them off it. My iron and board has been so much of a "get away from the iron..." she's pretty good about it now.
I trace with art graphite paper. I have sheets now, but sometimes I'll have a roll. Standard newsprint to trace to.
I do pin some stuff. Depends on how much time I want to spend, if I am goofing off, tired or if it's something that benefits from pinning if I use them. Practice can make it where you can go several projects without using one, though.