Shape Cut Shines For Fast, Accurate Strips And Squares
| July 9, 2001 | in Product Reviews |
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A review of from June Tailor |
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The Shape Cut from June Tailor is a clear plastic cutting guide and ruler approximately 16 inches square with many long slits to guide your rotary cutter in cutting strips and other shapes you use in quilting.
The slits are each 12 inches long and run parallel to each other, 1/2″ apart. At right-angles to the slits is a set of 12-inch-long black lines running parallel to each other, 1/2″ apart.
When I first saw the Shape Cut, I figured I’d like it for cutting strips. But after my testing I’ve decided that I like it for cutting certain shapes, too.
A Different Approach To Cutting
The main difference between using Shape Cut and using other rulers is the cutting. To use most quilting rulers you run your rotary cutter along the outside edge of the ruler. Not so with the Shape Cut. To use the Shape Cut, you run your rotary cutter through the slits.
That seems like a strange approach at first, but I found I like it because the Shape Cut eliminates steps, letting me get more done in less time.
The usual steps for using a ruler with a rotary cutter is to align the ruler, make a cut, move the ruler and maybe move the piece of fabric just cut. Then repeat the same four steps over and over until all the fabric is cut. In addition, you have to square up the fabric every few cuts to make sure the strips stay straight.
With the Shape Cut, I align the ruler, make a cut, make another cut, and another, and another until I’ve cut a foot of fabric. Only then do I need to move the ruler.
By eliminating much of the aligning and moving, I can cut lots more fabric in less time. And squaring up the fabric couldn’t be easier — every time I move the ruler, my cut in the first slit squares up the fabric automatically!
Cutting Strips
My first test of the Shape Cut was to cut strips. I folded my fabric selvage-to-selvage, then again fold-to-selvage. I aligned the fold along the zero (bottom) horizontal line on the Shape Cut. I aligned the raw fabric edge just to the left of the zero (left-most) vertical slit.
My first cut, in the zero slit, automatically squared up the fabric. Then I made a cut in the slits for the size strips I wanted to cut. Since I was cutting 1-1/2 inch strips for a log cabin, I ran my rotary cutter along slits at 1-1/2″, 3″, 4-1/2″, 6″, 7-1/2″, 9″, 10-1/2″ and 12 inches.
Then I picked up the Shape Cut, aligned it to my un-cut fabric as described above, and began cutting at the zero slit again. Zero, 1-1/2″, 3″, 4-1/2″, and so on. I had lots of strips cut in no time.
I used the Shape Cut to cut binding strips too. First I cut straight grain binding. Then I folded some fabric on the bias and cut bias binding strips. Shape Cut is certainly the easiest way to cut many straight strips quickly!
Which Rotary Cutter?
Jean, my friend who lent me this product to review, commented that the first time she used it she felt as though she were cutting the Shape Cut along with the fabric (though she wasn’t). The first time I tried it, that was my reaction, too. So I decided to try all my rotary cutters, to see if any of them would feel any different in the Shape Cut.
Both Jean and I had used the Olfa 60mm rotary cutter. This cutter’s blade is plenty large enough to reach to the bottom of the slits, but it is too big to fit easily into the teardrop openings at the beginning and end of each slit. These openings are designed to make it easier to get the blade started in the slit. Since the 60mm blade is so large, it wasn’t particularly easy to position it in the teardrops.
So I decided to try something smaller — the Olfa 28mm. Because of the shape of this cutter, its blade guard, and its small blade, the cutting part of the blade couldn’t reach all the way through the Shape Cut slit, through the fabric, and to the cutting board unless I held the handle almost straight up, perpendicular to the cutting board. That way the cutting portion of the blade was fully engaged in the bottom of the slit.
But holding the blade in this position was not very comfortable, to say nothing of the effects it would have on my wrist after even a short cutting session. So using the Olfa 28mm was out.
Trying The Fiskars 45mm
Next I grabbed my Fiskars 45mm. The shape of the blade guard and the size of the blade made this rotary cutter much more comfortable to use with the Shape Cut. The 45 mm blade was easier to get started in the teardrops than the 60mm, and the blade could easily reach down to the cutting board and so do a fine job cutting the fabric.
Next I tried the blue Dritz rotary cutter with the automatic retractable blade cover. This was the worst one to use with the Shape Cut. The thickness of the blade cover forced the blade to the extreme left of the teardrop.
When I tried to cut down the slits with the Dritz, the blade jumped out of the slits and rode on top of the Shape Cut. Aside from being dangerous, I actually put a nick in the teardrop trying to get this rotary cutter to work. I decided if I had to work this hard to cut strips, I’d be tempted to throw away the rotary cutter, the Shape Cut, or both.
Then I tried a very inexpensive, generic rotary cutter that I got at JoAnn’s for cutting paper. Since it has a shape similar to the Olfa, it cut about as well as the Olfa cutters. But it didn’t have to be held as straight as the Olfa 28mm. And it was easier to start than the 60mm Olfa.
Quick Change Rotary Cutter, 28mm
Finally, I tried my Quick Change Rotary Cutter from EZ Quilting with each of its three different-sized blades. My favorite cutter for working with Shape Cut turned out to be this one, with its 28mm blade installed.
Read our review of the Quick Change Rotary Cutter
Because of its design, it is more comfortable to use in the Shape Cut than any of the others, and the design allows the blade to cut deeply enough in the slits to easily cut the fabric.
So the Quick Change Rotary Cutter with the 28mm blade installed is the rotary cutter I used for all my other Shape Cut testing and is certainly the one I recommend you use with the Shape Cut.
Cutting Shapes
I guess by now you are wondering what shapes this slotted ruler is designed to cut. Besides strips, June Tailor’s instructions show how to use the Shape Cut to cut squares, triangles, chevrons, diamonds, and hexagons. So I tested all of the shapes.
The first shape explained is a chevron. The instructions say to fan-fold fabric into a strip of any width. Next, line up the folded strip with either the 45 degree or 60 degree line. Then cut slices off the strip in the desired width. Each slice will unfold like paper dolls to give you a string of chevrons that resemble a bolt of lightning.
While I like the lightning bolt shape, I don’t find this feature very useful in quilting. But I could imagine using it as a design along the hem of a skirt.
The Shape Cut works great for cutting squares. First, I cut a full Shape-Cut’s worth of 2-inch strips. Then, being careful not to move the fabric, I turned the Shape Cut 90 degrees and cut in all the same slits again. Since my second round of cuts was at right-angles to my first, I ended up with 120 perfect two-inch squares in under a minute!
Cutting Triangles
Next, I followed the instructions to cut triangles. As the picture in the instructions shows, I took one of my two-inch squares and lined up the Shape Cut so the corner of the square was in the intersection of two 45 degree lines. Then I cut in the middle of the square.
There are several things about this I don’t like. The first and most obvious is how awkward it is to use a 16-inch ruler to cut a 2-inch square in half. The second is that the resulting triangles are, from a technical point of view, mostly useless for quilting.
When quilters want to make half-square triangles (HST), the starting square usually has 7/8 of an inch added to the beginning size of the square so that the subsequent triangles will sew together into a usable size. There is no way to cut on anything but multiples of 1/2″ using the Shape Cut, so the resulting HST just aren’t very useful.
For example, the HSTs that I made from my 2-inch squares ended up at 1-5/8 inch. They would finish at 1-1/8 inch, which doesn’t easily fit into most patterns.
Shape Cut II
To be sure I wasn’t missing something important here, I called June Tailor. They agreed with my analysis. As a matter of fact, June Tailor is coming out with Shape Cut II in August, which will have all of the eighths marked in the margin.
That way I could line up the edge of my fabric on the 7/8″ mark and cut in the 4″ slot to cut a square that could then become a perfect 4-inch HST. Unfortunately, in the process I’d give up the two best features of the Shape Cut — its automatic squaring of the fabric, and the ability to cut many pieces without moving the ruler.
So I wouldn’t choose the Shape Cut for making HSTs. There are just too many other products that do the job more efficiently.
Read our review of three foundation-pieced triangle products
Read our review of the WonderCut Ruler
But I do like the Shape Cut for cutting diamonds. Cutting diamonds with the Shape Cut works almost as efficiently and easily as cutting squares, with one small exception. It is important to turn the Shape Cut clockwise, not counter-clockwise, to get properly-cut 60 degree diamonds (great for six-pointed stars and tumbling blocks) or 45 degree diamonds (for eight-pointed stars).
Cutting Hexagons
The final shape I cut was the hexagon. The instructions show how to cut off two points of a diamond to make a hexagon. But I discovered that the Shape Cut only works with diamonds cut using 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 inches.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know that at the time I cut my test diamond strips, so I cut 1-1/2″ strips. But trimming the points off a diamond to create a a hexagon requires you to divide the width of the diamond strip in half. One half of 1-1/2″ is 3/4″, but once again the Shape Cut only has slits at 1/2″ inch intervals. So I had to trim my 1-1/2″ diamonds with another ruler.
Finally, I tried the Shape Cut to cut a hexagon from a larger diamond. I found using the Shape Cut, which is 16″ square, on a diamond that was four inches long to be too cumbersome. And I was wasting too much fabric by cutting off the ends of the diamond and throwing them away. I could avoid that by using a hexagon template instead.
A Special-Purpose Tool
The Shape Cut is marketed as a multi-purpose tool, but my testing suggests that it’s really a special-purpose tool. It does strips and small squares better than any other ruler I’ve used. It’s faster, easier and more accurate.
For diamonds, triangles, and hexagons there are more efficient approaches than the Shape Cut, which explains why everyone I’ve spoken to who uses Shape Cut uses it exclusively for strips and small squares and really loves it.
Where To Buy: Shape Cut
 Learn more about Shape Cut at Joann.com … click the Search button! |
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then click Go Shopping!, then enter Shape Cut in the Search box, then click Go |
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Readers’ Comments:
July 10, 2001
Barb D. writes:
I wholly agree with your assessment of the June Tailor Shape Cut. I also have a suggestion about lining up the tool to get a perfectly straight strip.
When lining up the bottom line on a fold, I encourage my students to have an even 1/32″ of fabric showing below the Shape Cut line. I’ve found that otherwise, the top of the line might be even with the fold on one end and the bottom of the line even with the fold on the other end. Just that little difference can cause a zigzag.
But if you can see a perfectly even strip of fabric just below the bottom of the line, right at the beginning of each tear drop, you should get a perfectly straight strip.
July 17, 2001
Alison H. writes:
I use the Shape Cut for strips and squares with a 45mm Olfa and get on fine with it. But it is easy to get carried away and end up cutting in the wrong slit. So when I have a lot of strips to cut, I stick a small dot label at the interval I want to cut, just below the teardrop. No more wrong cuts!
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