Once the selvage is gone, there really is not way to tell where it is. If you’re using a woven fabric, you can snip the end and tear the fabric and it’ll tear along the lengthwise (or crosswise) grainline. That will at least give you a straight edge. If you’re using scraps to make a quilt, that should be good enough and you shouldn’t have any issues. If it was the same situation and you were using a pattern to make clothing, I would just pick a direction and make sure all your grainline arrows are consistent when placing all the patterns down.