Cut on the Fold, Place on the Fold, Cut 1 on Fold, Fold then Cut…They all mean the same thing! BUT WHAT DO THEY MEAN? Do I cut the fold or on the fold? I’m so frustrated! Any time a technique has more than one name it can lead to confusing, especially when it seems like the names are telling you to do different things. You don’t have to be frustrated anymore, I’ll explain everything.
The pattern I’m using in the video below is the Wide Strap Suck Pad designed for baby carriers like Kinderpack. If you have a Kinderpack baby carrier, you can download the pattern and learn how to use it here. You can also get many patterns like this DIY gift bag in the Fabric Ninja Freebie Library. 
Cut on the fold is often one of the first barriers you may come across when learning to use a sewing pattern. It’s crazy that one thing can be called by so many names. I think “Place on the Fold” is the most clear, but it is not what I see most often. I see “Cut on the Fold” most often, and that phrase leads you to wonder, Do I Cut the Fold?
The answer is NO! Don’t cut the fold, because that side doesn’t have seam allowance to allow it to be sewn to anything. So when you are getting ready to cut, fold your fabric so that the grain-line is along the fold and place the pattern so the fold edge is along the fabric fold. Do you know what grain-line is? It’s ok if you don’t. I’m here to help you learn.
The reason I’m using a straight suck pad pattern, is because it is so very simple. It’s just a rectangle! In the image above you see two hand-drawn versions of the same pattern. The one on the left is is designed to be cut flat The one on the right is designed to be Cut on the Fold. They both result in the same thing size fabric rectangle when they are cut.
Once the fabric is properly cut out it looks like this. The pieces are exactly the same.
Watch the Video
Here is a short video that explains it all. I show you the exact same pattern made flat and with a “Cut on the Fold”. The pattern used for this tutorial is the Wide Strap Suck Pad, you can download it and other patterns in the Freebie Library. This information applies to any pattern that is “Cut on the Fold” or “Place on the Fold”. I’m just using the suck pad pattern as a very simple example.
Do you want to remember this? Add a pin to your sewing board!
