Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Fabric Butcher

Cue the Horror Music!!!!!!! ( play sharp piano and violin notes)............

 A few days ago I felt like I was the main star in a horror movie!!! I dropped by my local Wal-Mart for a little grocery shopping and to pick up fabric for a client. I was looking for a very specific fabric I'd seen a few months earlier. I was delighted to find the fabric and took it to the fabric counter so it could be cut.

I told the sales associate that I wanted 1 yard of fabric and she obliged me. She was kind and courteous. She gently laid out the fabric, measured out 1 yard and then proceeded to cut it. Just to forewarn you the rest of the story is not for the faint of heart.

She took 2 cuts of the fabric and then stopped. I wondered what was wrong. Then I watched in horror as this woman began to butcher my fabric. She cut the fabric again and then attempted  to forcibly push the open scissors through the fabric to cut it. She obviously thought that it was the type of fabric you could cut once and drag the scissors through to cut it. But that wasn't the case since this fabric was a blend of taffeta and velvet and couldn't be cut in this fashion. But this didn't stop her from trying .
(my purchased fabric with butchered cutting edge. The way she was cutting I'm surprised the edges didn't end up worst.)

 So I watched in horror as she repeatedly would make 2 cuts and forcibly push the scissors through the fabric despite being met with resistance---over and over again.  I almost wanted to jump out of my skin!!!!! At one point I gently mentioned that it probably wasn't going to cut very easily with that method. She sorta agreed and kept right at it. I began to feel faint. Fortunately by that time she'd finished up and I was ready to high-tail it away from her. I asked her if she sewed and she said she was just learning to do some hand sewing. She then tightly folded my fabric into a small square. Why would you put so many crease lines in a taffeta fabric??? By that time I'd had enough. Not only I've never been so happy to be away from a cutting table. The only good thing from this is in addition to the 1 yard I bought she also sold me a 22" the remaining fabric remnant for only $0.46---super dirt cheap! That helped calm my nerves.

That has to be my WORST fabric cutting incident!!! Do you have any fabric cutting/mishandling horrors of your own????? Please share!!!

18 comments:

  1. About 25 years ago, I selected a piece of Pendleton wool at Joann's (you know that had to be a while back!) and asked the clerk for a yard. My plan was to make a skirt. I must not have been paying close attention because before I could catch her, she had cut off one-half yard. Oh no, I said, I need a yard. She turned ghostly white and insisted I had asked for one-half yard. But after a discussion involving a supervisor, she cut another piece. Nobody said anything, but she seemed so upset I wondered whether the cost of her mistake had been deducted from her pay.

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  2. Oh, your poor fabric! Such a stomach turner. My pet-peeve is always when they attempt to rip the fabric, after making one small cut. Theory is that the rip will be straighter than their cutting ability, but I always hate how the first 5cm or so has been pulled off grain....wouldn't you just love to cut your own fabric sometimes???

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  3. Just last Saturday night at my local Walmart, I could find no one to cut my fabric. I walked the store with the bolt in my hands, no help. I went to Customer Service and asked for help. They paged but no one came. After 30 minutes of waiting to get only enough contrasting cotton to make my own bias tape, the man from the paint counter came over and cut my fabric. I was exhausted and I do wish Wal Mart was not the only fabric game in town.

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    Replies
    1. What in the world???? That's just crazy. You poor thing. SMH.....

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  4. At least she didn't keep asking you what you were going to make with it and suggest a cami. That's all I hear from our local fabric store - everytime...

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    1. I would find that very annoying too!

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    2. Lol, I hate that too!! The lines at my JoAnn's are a nightmare and they rarely have more than two people working, so I hate it when they chat everyone up while ten people are in the cutting line! Last weekend, I waited in lines there for and hour and ten minutes and managed to get the cutting number right after the lady with over 50 bolts piled in her cart. That was my worst cutting experience ever.

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  5. Ouch. I once asked the salesperson at JoAnn's if there was any way to get a sample of two different shades of blue fabric so I could take them home. She said no, so I bought one inch of each. She did not enjoy cutting that!

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  6. I'm very anal with how my fabric is cut... and by whom. I have my favorite cutters at Jo-Anns and Hancock. I'm the customer... it's MY money. They aren't doing me any favors. There is no way I could've just stood there. I once had to practically cut my own fabric. The young lady that was cutting was going to short me almost a quarter of a yard by the time I would've evened out her jagged cutting.

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    1. I TOTALLY agree Erica! I honestly think I went into shock for a moment. That was my first time experiencing that! It took my brain a minute to compute. Usually they put someone in that department who knows what they're doing. Turns out I only needed a small piece of the yard for a baby dress I plan to make. If my needs were different I would have requested a new piece. There's a first time for everything. I don't plan on having a repeat if I can help it! LOL!

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  7. I too can be very particular about the cutting of my fabric. One time when I was much younger many years ago LOL. I stood and grit my teeth as a older woman cut many pieces of quilting for fabric for me. She shorted me on every single piece. I didn't have the umph to say anything as I watched. But when I got home I thought no I paid for what I ask for and I got less. I took all that fabric back to JoAnns and had it recut. It was obvious the manager did not believe me when I said all the pieces are short... He measured them all LOL (I guess because I was so young) he then got to eat a little crow and had to get my fabric recut LOL.

    Now if someone isn't cutting my fabric to suit me I speak up, I try to always be nice but I sure do speak up LOL. Though I must admit I hate having to do it LOL.

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  8. yes the uneven cuts are terrrible. Although now I notice Joanns has grooves in the table to make straight cutting mindless. But they never give any extra, not even an inch which somehow bugs me. And then they ask in a chipper voice, what are you making with this? which also bugs me, when it is lining fabric! sad they get people with little sewing knowledge but who would want to work there. The holiday candle smell would drive me away in 10 minutes!

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  9. At the moment, I can't recall any cutting nightmares. I can say that I've insisted on having plaids, stripes, or other fabrics with identifiable lines cut *on* the line. Some people politely agreed while others had to be...um...encouraged. Yeah, that's it, encouraged.

    One lady at JoAnn's insisted on cutting some silk lining (when they actually had nice stuff). I asked if she would rip it instead. She insisted that management wouldn't let her. So, I took both bolts from her and ripped it myself. I said if she got in trouble, she could blame it on me.

    If I'm not satisfied with how things are going, I won't proceed with the cut or purchase.

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  10. I asked for a printed panel to be cut at Walmart and I got a yard instead, which cut right through the print in a way that it was useless. I complained and the clerk cut a second piece exactly the same way since she was not understanding the panel concept. I tried to explain it and showed how the pattern was in squares and was to be cut between the squares but the clerk insisted she had cut a yard.
    I was 45 minutes into it at that point and I walked away, right out of the store. Now that store no longer has a fabric department and that's okay with me.

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  11. I always buy a quarter yard extra at JoAnn's because their cuts are so crooked, and once I had a piece that was cut so crooked that I lost more than a quarter of a yard and didn't have enough to make my pattern. The funny part was, it was a striped shirting. How can anyone screw up that bad?!

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  12. Yikes that's bad. I used to work in a fabric store and may have been that bad during my first week. After you've realized how extremely wonky bargain bin plaids can be, how much fleeces stick to themselves, how easy it is to snag bridal fabrics, etc... you smarten up quickly. Sigh.... The worst customers are something else too. I had one newbie seamstress come in and cut her own fabric while I waited on the solitary other customer.

    Most of the customers were great, so nice. I learned a lot more from them than they did from me. Guess it is always like that. These places never pay well, probably why they can't seem to get decent staff to stay.
    Mary in Thailand

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  13. I work part time at a local fabric store and we always add a couple extra inches more on a cut just to make sure. Sometimes fabrics get all wonky on the bolts. Stripes are easy 'cause I can just follow the stripe. Although sometimes ladies will come in and tell me to rip fabric that I know from experience doesn't rip... not so good.

    I know that at Joann the upper management are like super nazis. They check every inch of fabric being cut and compare sales to inventory which is why the cutters are so stingy. I would not want to work there...

    I remember one time at Hancock this girl who was obviously new had such a hard time getting the fabric un-draped off this bolt. She kept pulling it in different directions but could never get it flat. It was a little awkward but I didn't want to make a big deal about it and help her. Although if she tried to cut it like your experience I'd probably reach out and grab the scissors!

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