Measure Twice, Cut Once

Measure twice, cut once. (Or as Ben Napier says on HGTV's Home Town, "Measure twice, cuss once." Hah!)

I did measure twice. I always do before I cut a length of fabric into smaller lengths. And it's especially important when I am making petticoats. I buy just enough fabric to make one so there is no room for error. Then I lay it out, I measure it once and then measure it again, and finally, I cut.

So, when I was making the red petticoat, I measured twice as always, grabbed my roto cutter, and cut. I pinned the two pieces together to stitch the side seams and...

What?? Wait, one piece is longer than the other. What was going on?

I checked to be sure I hadn't accidentally folded one piece under itself when I'd pinned. An easy fix.

Yeah. If only.

Somehow I'd cut one of the two pieces 3 1/4" shorter than the other. A significant mistake, and one that I could not repair. I either had to get more fabric and cut again, or shorten the longer piece by 3 1/4" and proceed with making the petticoat.

I chose the latter option. Petticoat hem lengths in the 18th century varied from mid calf to ankle, plus a shorter woman would have no problem with the length. (At least, that's what I told myself.)

The petticoat is completed but that error pointed something out - I was getting really tired and starting to make mistakes. Time to take a break for maybe a day and just do other things. And that's what I did.

When I returned, I began work on the blue knee-length cloak. It was time to attach the silk lining, something that would require very tiny hand stitches and take a lot of time to do.

I also needed my special sewing glasses so I could see my stitching and a good light source. And maybe even some Tylenol because my neck was soon getting a kink from bending over the table. (Some chocolate and a coke would be nice, too, but I didn't want to get any food on that silk.)

Since the stitches would be seen on both sides of the hood, I used blue thread to match the outside of the hood - that is what would show most of the time. And, it was more incentive to get those stitches as teeny tiny as I could.

An hour later, the silk was attached and I continued on to making the hood itself.

Using more hand stitching, I gathered the back of the hood. Now I need to even out those gathers into a neater circle and then anchor them in place with stitches, again all by hand. (Sure am glad I chose to not use the other cloak pattern that required hand stitching. ::cough cough::)

I'm going to take another break from sewing for today, though. Tomorrow's Sunday and I always take that day off, so I won't get back to the blue cloak until Monday. No doubt a two day break will do me some good. And hopefully I will feel fresher and less tired on Monday and when I measure twice and then cut, I'll get it right.

Stay 'tooned!