Sewing with fine, stretchy fabric. How do you cut straight bloody lines?

[LowLevelWhinging]

So I'm making a cotbed duvet cover at friend's request and she has given me the fabric. It is very light and soft cotton (I suppose) but it is really unstable and stretches randomly.

So I laid the quilt on top of it then went around it with a long quilter's ruler and rotary cutter, cutting the fabric with seam allowances. Then when I take the quilt off and lay the fabric out again, It looks like there are massive bulges in my 'straight lines' because the fabric has shifted whilst I was moving along with the cutter.

So, how on earth do you cut long, straight right angles on such fiddley fabric?

(I've finished the cover now and it was a flipping nightmare)

Could you separate out a threat and pull it out leaving a tiny gap to follow?

ooh, is that a thing that folk do? Brilliant!

If it's a knit, that wouldn't work, so in that case perhaps try bondaweb to "fix" the fabric before cutting, and use an overlocker if you can.

plutocrap, what is 'a knit' please? as opposed to..? I've seen this phrase on blogs when I've searched and not understood.

I did wonder about using a basting spray or something.

And an overlocker is a separate machine?

and thank you!

Jersey is knitted, which is why it stretches. Examples of knits are tshirt fabric, lycra, fleece. Woven fabric looks grid-like, or has regularly spaced parallel lines, like corduroy or denim/twill. Daisybell's technique would work well on woven fabric, but you said it was stretchy, so I wondered if it was a kind of jersey or something...?

Overlockers are very hard core! I recently bought a double needle for my machine, because I heard it would deal with stretchy fabrics without the need for an overlocker; I haven't done anything with jersey yet, though.

Ah thanks Pluto. So yes, the fabric I used must've been a knit. It was like a very fine t shirt material and it caused me to swear an awful lot!

I use a perspex ruler and a rotary cutter to cut straight lines, like you. I refuse to use t shirt/jersey type material because it drives me to the point of well, you know, you've been there!

But if you cut a very wibbly line, it doesnt matter too much, as you can usually stitch a nice straight line, thus the seam will be straight and neat, and assuming you have an allowance, you can trim the seam of its wibbliness.

Dorothy, that's exactly what i did!

The duvet cover looks fine on the duvet, but it may not ever lie completely flat!

When your project goes right first time it s so satisfying, but little niggles like this are truly frustrating, arent they. But dont forget, what looks glaringly obvious to you, because you have created it and are aware of the problems - somebody else probably wouldnt pick up on it at all! It probably looks very good to anyone else!

I pin mine to paper and cut through both layers, it seems to work but it's very fiddly. You have to close-pin right up to the line you want to cut.