Measuring Precuts

Pre-cut fabrics are something that are great to incorporate into your quilting designs because they really save you time in your cutting because they're pre-cut fabrics. So pre-cuts come in all different shapes and sizes. Jelly rolls are two and a half inch strips, charm packs are five inch squares, they're layer cakes, there are many charm packs, there's all different kinds of pre-cut fabrics that you can pick from. And while that does make your cutting very much quicker, because you don't have to cut all of these strips, it is still important to measure those pre-cuts, especially if you're gonna be making a quilt that is a combination of pre-cut fabrics and regular fabric that you're gonna have to cut. The reason for this is because most pre-cuts come with some kind of pinked edge. So you can see right along here, there's a pinked edge along this strip, and there it is very large pinks, I guess if you will, very large triangles that come out away from the edge. This is another pre-cut fabric here. Again, it still has a pinked edge, but it is much smaller. So they're just teeny tiny little zigzags or jagged edges that go around. Manufacturers do this on the edge of their fabric, they pink the edge of the fabrics because it does keep those fabrics from raveling as much when you have, you know, all of your jelly rolls, your strips rolled together and those edges are exposed, or all of your squares stacked up and those edges are exposed, it protects the edge of the fabric. But what can happen is that the two and a half inch strip may not actually be two and a half inches from the outside edge of that pinked edge. Maybe it's two and a half inches from the inside edge of the pinked edge. It can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so it's very important that you measure to make sure you know exactly what size your strip is or your square is, before you use it. So for example here, this is our little charm pack. It should be a perfect five inch square. Now, if I were to line up the outside edge of my pinked edge, right along my line, so you can see I can still kind of see a tiny little bit of white just because that is where the indentations along that pinked edge is. If I line that up here on the side and then it line it up here at the top, you can see now over here, I'm extended beyond that five inch line. So my five inch square isn't actually five inches, it's more of a five and a 16th inch square. Now something like that is very, very minuscule and I probably would not even think about it or consider it when I'm using this piece because it is so small. So something like that, I'd probably just leave as is. This one here is a jelly roll, so it should be two and a half inches. You can see here if I lay the outside pinked edge of my two and a half inch strip right along the line on my cutting mat here, I'm not at two and a half inches. I'm closer to all the way up to two and three quarter inches which if you're gonna try and put this pre-cut two and a half inch strip with other strips of fabric that you are gonna cut that are two and a half inches, they're gonna be quite a bit off. And if you're following a pattern, then you need to know what size your pieces are. If you're just kind of putting your fabric together and making up a pattern as you go, that's fine, but if you're following a pattern then you need to know what size or pieces are. So just for another visual example here, here is a strip of fabric that I have cut at exactly two and a half inches and if I were to sew these two together, you can see that if I lay my two and a half inch strip that I cut on the two and a half inch jelly roll, all of those pinked edges of my under fabric are exposed on the outside edge. So when I'm using this specific jelly roll, I know that if I'm lining up my pieces and I need them right sides together with raw edges aligned, I need to align my cut edge with the inside pinked edge of that strip. So it can be a little bit confusing or tedious because your pieces are different sizes. One way that you can combat that is if you're only gonna use a few of these pre-cut pieces in your quilts, you may consider trimming off those pinked edges. With this one here, I wouldn't do it, they're way too small and it wasn't enough of a difference. But with this one here, because there is so much of a difference between the sizes of strips, I actually would come in and cut off those pinked edges. So I have a two and a half inch strip and I'm gonna use my two and a half inch ruler. I'm gonna lay my ruler down in the center of my strip. And then I'm just gonna come along one side, I'm gonna cut off all those little pinked edges, right like so, I'm gonna go ahead and flip my strip around. Going to bring my ruler in, make sure my ruler is aligned right on my new straight edge and come in and cut the other side, right at two and a half inches. And I would continue doing that, sort of moving my way along my cutting mat as I go, that way this is gonna create a lot of mess in your sewing room. If you try to make one cut, brush it away, make another cut, brush it away. So I like to try and go in rows. That way when I'm done, I can have just one little pile of all of my little paint pieces that I've cut off. But now if I were to take my jelly roll and my two and a half inch strip that I cut by myself, and I align them right sides together. Now my pieces are exactly the right size. I can align those raw edges. I don't have to worry about, oh is it the outside of the pinked edge? Is it the inside of the pinked edge? Now I know I can just align my pieces, raw edges together. So even though a pre-cut fabric is advertised as a specific size, whether that's two and a half inch strips, five inch squares, 10 inch squares, whatever they are, always double-check them, measure them and make any adjustments to them that you need to, so you know what size your whole finished block or quilt is going to be in the end.