How to Make Accurate Cuts

Ah, the proverbial question, which is more accurate, cutting off the ruler or cutting off the mat? Hmm, I don't know, let's see. Let's look at these two tools and kind of ask ourselves, do we think one could be more accurate than the other? And then ask ourselves how important that is. So when I look at rulers, there's all sorts of different brands; this is a Creative Grids ruler, this is the old style Omnigrid ruler, this is a very inaccurate ruler called the Perfect Adjustable Ruler, and you can see here that it's got a nice bow to it, so it's not perfect but it is adjustable. It was a really great idea, a ruler you could take apart for travel and stuff, but when it gets put together, it hasn't got very straight of an edge. However, rulers are all a little bit different from each other, and they all have different bits of information. Here we have a couple of different mats, again, an Omnigrid brand, and this is some off-brand called Crex, or Crea, C-R-E-A. Here you can see the lines really, really well. Here you can see the lines not very well at all. However, here the lines are quite wide and here they're narrower, so that might be more accurate. Here, where we have our eighth-inch and quarter-inch and three-eighth inch lines, they're different widths, so, you know, what side of the line do you cut on? On this guy here, we have some thin lines and some thicker lines, but these lines here are much thicker, so what's accurate? Well, I'm not sure, let's see. What's more important, that our pieces be cut straight? Or that they be cut perfectly to size? Well I'm here to tell you the more important thing is that they're cut straight. So I'm gonna measure two inches here using the mat, and we're gonna cut it real quick. Okay, so I used the mat for the measurement on that one. Now on this one, I'm gonna use the actual ruler. So it doesn't matter where I put this piece of paper on that mat, because I'm gonna use the two inch line here. Line that up. Okay, let's compare the two. They're exactly the same size. So, it doesn't really matter what you cut off. What matters is that you cut consistently correctly. What matters is that you pay attention and you keep your ruler against the edge - I mean, your cutter against the edge of your ruler. What matters is that you don't let your ruler slip, and there are some tricks to that. So, instead of worrying, what do I cut off of, the mat or the ruler, I'm gonna say you cut off whatever is working for you for that cut. So if it works for you for that cut to cut off the ruler, then cut off the ruler. If it works to place it on the grid of your mat so that you know something's happening in a particular way, then place it on the grid of your mat. But hold your ruler in such a way that it's not going to slip. This happens to be a Creative Grids Non-Slip ruler. It's got this kind of sandpapery little circles on it, it's to help it from not moving. Well it moves a lot on here, it doesn't move as much on fabric. But I happen to know that there's a little trick that you can do using your pinky finger to keep your ruler from moving as much. When you hold your ruler, you do not hold it with a flat hand. A flat hand and pressure moves things. You wanna hold your ruler with a cupped hand. A cupped hand does not move things. My pinky is on the edge of that ruler all the time. It keeps it from moving. When my pinky's over here, it moves more. It's acting like an edge, if you will, that keeps it from falling off or something. A lot of times I watch students start their cut over here, and work their way in, and then work their way out. No, butt your rotary cutting blade right next to the edge of that ruler, and hold your rotary cutter straight. Not at this angle, not at that angle, but straight up and down. And when you cut, cut all the way through. Don't cut and then veer off, cut straight and all the way through. Doesn't matter, cut off the ruler, cut off the mat, just cut accurately. Make sure that your ruler doesn't shift, and keep your rotary blade hugging the edge of your ruler all the time and straight up and down, and follow through. Then you're gonna have really well-cut pieces.