A method of making a fabric-creped absorbent cellulosic sheet, the method comprising: (a) applying a jet of papermaking furnish to a forming wire, the jet having a jet velocity and the forming wire moving at a forming wire velocity, the calculated value of the jet velocity minus the forming wire velocity being referred to as the jet/wire velocity delta; (b) compactively dewatering the papermaking furnish to form a nascent web; (c) applying the nascent web to a transfer surface that is moving at a transfer surface speed; (d) fabric-creping the nascent web from the transfer surface at a consistency of from about 30 to about 60 percent utilizing a creping fabric that is traveling at a fabric-creping speed, the fabric-creping speed being lower than the transfer surface speed, the fabric-creping step occurring under pressure in a fabric creping nip defined between the transfer surface and the creping fabric, wherein the fabric pattern, the nip parameters, the velocity delta, and the web consistency are selected such that the nascent web is creped from the transfer surface and redistributed on the creping fabric to form a creped web with a reticulum having a plurality of interconnected regions of different local basis weights, including at least (i) a plurality of fiber enriched regions having a high local basis weight, interconnected by way of (ii) a plurality of lower local basis weight linking regions; (e) drying the creped web; characterized in that the method further comprises: (f) controlling the jet/wire velocity delta and the fabric-creping step, including selection of the fabric, such that the plurality of fiber-enriched regions have an orientation bias in the cross-machine direction, and the dry machine direction to cross-machine direction (MD/CD) tensile ratio of the dried web is about at most 1.5, with the proviso that the jet/wire velocity delta is greater than about 1.78 m/s (350 fpm). (a) applying a jet of papermaking furnish to a forming wire, the jet having a jet velocity and the forming wire moving at a forming wire velocity, the calculated value of the jet velocity minus the forming wire velocity being referred to as the jet/wire velocity delta; (b) compactively dewatering the papermaking furnish to form a nascent web; (c) applying the nascent web to a transfer surface that is moving at a transfer surface speed; (d) fabric-creping the nascent web from the transfer surface at a consistency of from about 30 to about 60 percent utilizing a creping fabric that is traveling at a fabric-creping speed, the fabric-creping speed being lower than the transfer surface speed, the fabric-creping step occurring under pressure in a fabric creping nip defined between the transfer surface and the creping fabric, wherein the fabric pattern, the nip parameters, the velocity delta, and the web consistency are selected such that the nascent web is creped from the transfer surface and redistributed on the creping fabric to form a creped web with a reticulum having a plurality of interconnected regions of different local basis weights, including at least (i) a plurality of fiber enriched regions having a high local basis weight, interconnected by way of (ii) a plurality of lower local basis weight linking regions; (e) drying the creped web; characterized in that the method further comprises: (f) controlling the jet/wire velocity delta and the fabric-creping step, including selection of the fabric, such that the plurality of fiber-enriched regions have an orientation bias in the cross-machine direction, and the dry machine direction to cross-machine direction (MD/CD) tensile ratio of the dried web is about at most 1.5, with the proviso that the jet/wire velocity delta is greater than about 1.78 m/s (350 fpm).