Warning: Don't skip grain direction when you cut bookcloth

I keep seeing new binders online cut their cloth any which way, and then wonder why their covers warp or bubble up after a week. It's the grain pulling the board out of shape, and you can test it yourself with a simple bend test before you glue anything down. Has anyone else run into this or am I just being picky?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_taylor24d ago

My grandma used to yell at me for cutting fabric wrong for quilts too and I thought she was being dramatic until my first book cover warped like a potato chip three days later lol. It's wild how something as simple as which way the fibers run can make or break a project, but I've started noticing it everywhere now like with cardboard boxes and even how my t-shirts hang in the closet.

jessica13024d ago

That "potato chip" thing is the perfect way to describe it. I've had that happen with a few projects and it's so frustrating. The worst part is when you think you can fix it by pressing it flat and it just stays curved. I had a book cover that warped so bad it wouldn't even close right. Learned my lesson though, now I always do the bend test twice before I cut anything.

rowan_thomas8424d ago

My third book cover ever did that potato chip thing and I literally thought I'd somehow glued it wrong, not realizing the cloth grain was fighting me the whole time (classic rookie move, honestly). It's embarrassing how many times I've done the bend test on a piece of fabric only to go "yeah that's fine" and then absolutely not cut with the grain because I was lazy or in a rush. I even tried to salvage a warped cover once by stacking heavy textbooks on it for a week and all I got was a very flat, very warped book cover that still looked sad. So yeah, grain direction is one of those lessons I had to learn the hard way, multiple times, like a person who keeps touching a hot stove.

paul_taylor2124d ago

Honestly, I see what you're saying about noticing grain direction everywhere now, but I gotta gently push back on the t-shirt thing. T-shirts are knitted, not woven like bookcloth, so they don't really have a grain direction in the same way. The way they hang is more about the knit structure and the cut of the fabric, not a directional fiber alignment like with woven materials. Still, I get where you're coming from, and it's awesome that you're paying that much attention. I'm with @the_taylor on the potato chip book cover thing though. I've been there too and it's such a bummer when you think you did everything right and it warps.