History of Undies

Quilting Rotary Cutter And Mat

Whats the trick to a perfect square of fabric?

I’m trying to cut fabric squares for a quilt and just cannot seem to get the sides even! My mom bought a rotary cutter for quilting and we use a plastic veggie cutting board (clean) instead of a mat since theyre kind of expensive. I have rulers and angles and cut right along the line, but being fabric, it moves when I can’t really tell, so I can’t get it perfect. Is there a trick to this or am I aiming for the impossible?

How I have done it is to pull a thread. Not all fabric will let you pull a thread on both the straight grain and the cross grain, but most 100% cotton fabrics will, particularly after they have been washed.

Anyway, I pull a thread and then trim with the rotary cutter along the line the pulled thread left. I used to rip fabrics on a thread line, and that works too–but I like the neat edge made with the rotary cutter rather than the fuzzy edge left when ripping.

How to use a rotary cutter to cut strips for quilting