Choosing Linen

With the 46 count linen not going to work with DMC, I had to re-think what I was going to do. My choices, as I saw them:

• Order a 40 count piece of Porcelain from Leo & Roxy
• Order 103 skeins of silk floss and use the 46 count
• Dig through the linen bin and find a fabric I already have that will work with the floss I have.

I could order another piece of linen from Leo & Roxy but I’ll talk about the sizes of the fabric in a minute.

I could order silk floss. There are two that I like for 46 count fabric and they are between $3 and $3.60 per skein. I need 103 colors. That’s more than I’m willing to spend.

So that left digging through the linen bin and finding an alternate fabric.

I found these and all of them will work. The one stretched out at the top is the Leo & Roxy Porcelain that I had wanted to use but I would be happy with any of these.

The stitching on this project will cover 10″ x 21″. If I want a 1″ border and 2″ on each side for framing, the linen needs to be 27″ x 16″.

A fat quarter should be about 17″ x 25″. A fat half should be about 26″ x 35″. Not always but most of the time, and we shouldn’t count on it happening, but the pieces are a bit larger. I always measure before starting, and I always pull a thread before starting. Linen is almost never cut straight.

Here’s the piece I chose and the first thing I did was pull the thread.

You can see how much fabric I lost (1-1/2″ tota) because this piece was cut crooked. Here’s the bottom end of that same side.

I’m guessing that they measured and cut from this end and didn’t pay attention to trying to cut along a thread. I understand there’s a ton of linen to be cut and most shops run on a tight budget, with maybe just the owner cutting the fabric. There isn’t time to pull threads but it seems they should be able to do better than this. I can see being 1/2″ off. I have a hard time with 1-1/2″ off, and that’s what this one is.

Basically, the fabric started out 17″ wide but the grain was off and since we’re stitching using the threads as the guide, using this fabric shown above, if I had started 2-1/2″ to 3″ from that first side, by the time I got to the bottom, I would have had less than 1/2″ left . . for border AND finishing.

I will add that I measured the Leo & Roxy fabric because I knew 1/4 yard was going to be a tight fit and it started out at 20″ wide and I lost less than 1/2″ total to straighten it.

There is one shop I will no longer order linen from because I’m not quite sure how they measure and cut fabric but their fabric is consistently cut terribly crooked. While I’m not going to complain about fabric that’s a bit off, losing 1-1/2″ to 2 or more inches is not acceptable . . at least in my opinion.

Most of the time, when stashbusting, I order 1/4 yard. Probably 80% of the time, I’m using it to make smaller pieces, cutting off what I need and saving the rest but, on those occasions when I actually need ALL of what I’m buying, it’s risky!