"How Much Fabric?"


I can hear the girl behind the cutting counter asking me, again, as I stand there on the other side, holding the queue behind me up (sorry ladies), feeling guilty for actually loving yet another piece of fabric that I have no immediate use for. My usual answer to this question is ..."I have no idea but I just have to have it! So cut me off about ..." and the guesstimate begins. Then I panic  What if I haven't asked for enough??? 
So I add on an extra 20cm just in case.  And another 10cm to allow for shrinkage/error in my future unplanned sew-up. It won't kill me to buy that little bit extra. And it is soooo close to the meterage that I will just round it up - naturally thinking of the poor girl cutting. Why, it must be easier for her to measure out 2 metres of fabric instead of 1.8! What a considerate customer I am...

Well, without a doubt, I buy too much. But then not enough. In other words, I never have an idea on how much to buy when I see fabric and decide to purchase on a whim. And without my matching pattern stash with me, how do I really know How Much Fabric? 

It appears the answer has have been dropped in my letterbox last Friday by way of Gwyn Hug. Thanks to the lovey Aft Agley and her giveaway last month, I now have in my hot little hands a complete set of Reference Cards for Women's Clothes! 

These sturdy plastic reference cards - the perfect size to slip into your purse - summarize the fabric requirements of thousands of patterns with tables and images to help you buy just the right amount. There are tables showing the minimum, average and maximum fabric requirements for dresses  tops, skirts, pants and jackets - broken down by garment size and fabric width. The cards also include sketches that illustrate minimum  average and maximum garments, and "safety margin" tables to guide you in "rounding up" to be as safe as you want, without wastefully overbuying. American and metric versions are available, in women's sizes 6-22 (m: 32-48). Gwyn Hug is a small business built from the combined efforts of four sewing friends. More card sets for men's and children's clothes are available. 

So watch me shop now, ladies! Because we all know that you have to build the stash up before you can sew it...





  

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