Pre-cuts are exactly what they sound like. They are fabrics that are pre cut to certain dimensions. They can save you a lot of time, and there’s no shortage of patterns for them. They are also a great way to get pieces from a whole line of fabrics without having to buy yardage from each piece. If you struggle with choosing several fabrics that coordinate well, pre-cuts can be a game changer. Just allow a professional fabric designer to do the coordinating for you! My Dublin Fancy Quilt uses pre-cuts for the cube blocks. There will be a quilt along that starts on March 13, 2024. I’d love to have you join us! You can sign up here. I’m using Whispering Lilies by Benartex Fabrics.
For all the advantages of pre-cuts, some quilters still don’t like to use them. If you don’t like pre-cuts, you have every right to not like them, and we can still be friends. I used to shy away from them too when I first starting quilting. I’m glad I overcame this fear though because I’ve been able to make a lot of quilts that I love using pre-cuts. The quilt that gets the most love in my house used pre-cuts. I made that quilt for me, but it was promptly claimed/stolen by the little SnuggleBug. You can read about that one and see pictures here.
Common Pre-cuts
For this article, I won’t be defining fat quarters as a pre-cut. I suppose they are technically a pre-cut, but they aren’t really used in the same was as other pre-cuts. I’ve never seen a pattern that expected you to be able to take a fat quarter out of the pack and sew it into a quilt without trimming it like you might do with layer cakes, charms, mini charms, or jelly rolls/strip pies.
Layer Cakes are packs that typically contain (42) 10″ squares. Charms typically come in packs of (42) 5″ squares. Mini Charms are 2.5″ squares and typically come in packs of 42. Jelly Rolls, also called Strip Pies are 2.5″ by Width of fabric strips and typically come in packs of 40. I have seen some that only come in packs of 20, so be sure to check this so that you get all the strips you need.
What’s scary about pre-cuts?
I was initially afraid of pre-cuts because I didn’t think they were accurate. You would think that a 10″ square is a 10″ square or a 2.5″ strip is a 2.5″ strip regardless of the manufacturer, but this is not so. For some quilts this doesn’t matter as much. If you’re just going to sew layer cake squares or charms together straight out of the pack, you should be ok if you use squares all from the same pack. This would make a simple and pretty quilt with lots of gorgeously coordinated fabrics! My FREE Partial Dreams pattern is one of those patterns where it doesn’t matter as much even though you’re sewing the Jelly Roll strips around a piece that you’ll cut yourself. Since all of the blocks are the same, the Jelly Roll strips won’t cause you much trouble. But, what if you want to make something a little more involved?
In my opinion, the thing that trips people up the most with pre-cuts is the pinking. What is pinking anyway? Pinking involves cutting the fabric with special shears to give it a zig-zagged edge. It’s great for keeping the fabric from fraying. You can see the pinked edges on the Jelly Roll strip pictured below. Some fabric manufacturers don’t pink the edges of their Jelly Roll strips, but I’ve never seen Layer Cakes, Charms, or Mini Charms that aren’t pinked.
Let’s take a closer look at the pinked edges and why they can cause issues for us quilters. In the photo below you can see where I have labeled the peaks and the valleys of the pinked edges. The Peakes are the outside points of that zig zag and the valleys are the part where the zig zag cuts the deepest into your fabric.
A Jelly Roll strip like the one pictured above should measure 2.5″. But where are those 2.5″ measured from? Is it measured from valleys to valleys or peaks to peaks? Maybe it’s even measured from valley to peak. This isn’t standardized, and there isn’t a right or wrong.
Where do you start your 1/4″ seam? Some quilters prefer to start measuring from the valley for their 1/4″ seam because they don’t like having the valleys cut into their seam allowance. Other quilters, me included, prefer to start the 1/4″ seam allowance at the peaks. I prefer this because it’s easier to see this while I’m sewing. Who’s right? Neither and both… There isn’t really a right or wrong answer here. Once you pick a method, it will be correct for some pre-cuts and incorrect for some pre-cuts. The fact is, it doesn’t matter which one you prefer. If you want your piecing with pre-cuts to be accurate, you have to be in tune with what the manufacturer was thinking. I should probably throw it out there that you can always cut the pre-cuts to the size you want them. I’ll be honest though… I’m not going to do this with a Jelly Roll. I bought pre-cut strips for a reason. I would be more likely to do this for Layer Cakes or Charm Packs, maybe…
So, to find out where the manufacturer thinks you should meaure your seam allowance from, you just need to measure one of the pre-cuts from the pack. It’s hard to see the right edge of that strip in the picture below, but that one was 2.5″ from valley to valley. Now that I know this, I can sew my 1/4″ seam allowance accordingly and cut down on a lot of the frustration from working with pre-cuts.
That’s all I’ve got for today
As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog!
I hope you enjoyed it.
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Happy quilting!
