How to Cut Slippery Fabric

Sewing and crafting with beautiful silks, satins and rayons can be intimidating because cutting slippery fabric leaves a lot of room for error. Here are some handy tips to accurately cut slippery fabric.

Instructions

1. Iron your fabric using spray starch. Use the temperature setting appropriate for the fiber content, and spray starch on the reverse side of the fabric. This creates a stiffer material to work with and helps keep it from wiggling around your work area.

2. Lay a sheet of paper under your fabric. Use butcher paper, waxed paper, Kraft paper, or clean newsprint. Pin the fabric to the paper. This gives stability to the slippery fabric and creates some friction to prevent it from moving.

3. Sandwich your fabric under another sheet of paper, or the pattern itself. If your pattern is not yet trimmed, you may use the pattern tissue as the top layer of paper. If your pattern pieces have already been cut away from the bulk of the paper, you may need to use another full piece of paper and lay the pattern pieces on top. Pin this top layer all the way through to the bottom sheet of stabilizing paper.

4. Cut the fabric with very sharp fabric scissors or a rotary cutter. Take care to not budge the fabric much as you are cutting so that it does not move as your work around it. The layers of paper stabilize the slippery fabric as you cut.

Tips & Warnings

• Cutting through paper with sewing shears can dull the blades. Keep a pair dedicated to this type of project so that you don't ruin your everyday shears.