Burda Style For people who sew

Bias/diagonal cut (cutting on the cross)
Bias-cut sections will fall fluidly whether on a skirt, draped top or tie. It’s important for the fabric to be cut out exactly at an angle of 45 degrees to the grain line. Normally the printed grain line, parallel to the selvedge, will show you the correct position to place your paper pattern pieces on the fabric (with the automatic slanting). However, for bias binding strips and other made-to-measure fabric pieces where there are no paper pattern pieces but which have to be cut diagonally, you must find the right slant yourself! This is easiest when your fabric has a selvedge; fold your fabric so that the selvages lie at a right angle and the fold will be at exactly 45 degrees. Lightly iron the fold and cut along it, or straighten out the fabric, mark the fold with tailor’s chalk or by basting a thread, then iron flat again. If your fabric has no selvages, cut across your fabric by pulling out a fabric thread and exactly cutting along this line. Then fold this absolutely straight edge to obtain your exact diagonal, as described above