Sewing Gauge--Trishty

I know they have them at Joann's with the other "bulk" supplies like bobbins etc. I have several. Jan

I have one, given to me years ago, but never need it and have never used it...

No, we don't. But there's an online Joann's, so I'll take a look. I've also bookmarked a whole bunch of notions sites, thanks to advice on here. Last time I ordered a gadget (a tracing wheel) locally, they had to send away to Paris for it and it took two weeks. Made me laugh like a drain when I saw 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' - "Well ain't this a geographical oddity? Two weeks from anywhere!".

:) Trish

And mine disappeared a while back and I have missed it desperately since (have had a few cheap ones since that were incredible inept and keep forgetting to get another decent one at Joanns)

Probably by using the little slips of cardboard that come inside bias tape. I have three sewing gauges, including one that was made before they switched to aluminum-foil rulers with a cling-wrap slider, and when I want to measure or mark, I almost always reach for a little slip of cardboard.

Of course I have regular rulers, from 7" to 15" all over the place. The 7" one was a gift from Conrail and says "Don't meet us on the crossing"; I've no idea what the significance of making it 7" instead of the usual 6" is -- and the 177 mm on the other side doesn't make any more sense. Handy to keep in the paper drawer under the sewing machine though.

(I keep my sewing machine on a typing stand; the paper drawer is really handy for bobbins, small spools, extra feet, tweezers, etc.)

Joy Beeson

Mmn. No, that's still not the answer...I make my own bias tape, so I don't buy the commercial stuff. I'm starting to get intrigued now - what are you all measuring? I hardly ever measure anything. Am I missing something?

I do have a regular ruler in my gadgets box, but I don't even use that very often. And I have a big quilter's ruler for pattern drafting, along with an adjustable set square, protractor, etc. But when working on fabric I do nearly everything by eye, including quilting parallel lines. I don't have any trouble sewing straight seams, etc. I make use of the lines on my needle plate, but generally gauge 3/8 of an inch from half an inch, say, by sight. I don't even mark up fabric all that often. Am I just idle? Yikes!

:0 Trish

Hems, mostly. I stick the cardboard inside the hem, fold the fabric to meet the line drawn on the cardboard, pinch the hem, pull out the cardboard, stick in a pin.

I make my own tape too, but I inherited a bagful of the little slips from my late mother-in-law.

Joy Beeson

Ah. This rings a bell: when making the Plaza Jacket from Sewing Workshop they recommend that you cut out a cardboard template. I think when doing hems, I mainly do it by eye. Maybe I'd be more precise if I wore short skirts, but my skirts are always full and long, and very often curved, too, so I tend to use a bias facing rather than turn up. I just try it on to see if it looks right and go from there.

In fact, I do kind of measure on my body. My thumb measures exactly an inch to the main crease. My CF to floor is a yard, and shoulder seam to comfy dress length is 45", while fingertip to fingertip is pretty close to 1.5 yards. Yes, I do sometimes make garments on the crossgrain...

:) Trish

Another one who uses the 'rule of thumb'! Great hand sewing gauge, the thumb... ;P

I had to smile at this! My mother rang me yesterday asking me to bring some elastic next time I visit. She needs black, half a thumb width and fingertip to elbow long. Just as well we're similar in build! chris

:-)

I measure yards by the old 'tip of nose to outstretched thump-finger grip' on fabric. If I am wondering about a distance on the ground or floor, it is a 'long step' for me to judge a yard. Us sewers/stitchers/creaters-of-sewn-items have a good eye for small distances; I constantly surprise DH and others by my statements as to the size of some small bit.

As to a 'sewing gauge', DM always used a card from bias tape, cutting a notch at the proper depth.

So, I'm not alone, then! :)

I've worked in magazine production for years, so I spend a lot of time looking for tiny differences in measures, like double spaces or point-size-to-leading errors, or runround discrepancies.

As for visual perception: the other day, the 'boys' came home with a piece of string that they had used to measure the width of a trailer (they were looking to move an old cart). Their estimates varied from 4ft to 4ft 6in. I looked at the string and said: "It's 5' 2" ". They looked disbelieving.

This was a curly bit of orange string with a knot in it, so I held it up in my outstretched arms. "It's definitely 5' 2"," I said. They still didn't believe me, but when we measured it on a tape, it was bang on. They think I'm a witch, but I can spot that measure a mile away, because it's near as dammit me - fingertip to fingertip...but I'm not going to tell them that!

Wish I could carry colours in my head, though...

:) Trish

I'm not that good on measures - can guess, but prefer to put a tape on it - but a few years ago I was in a store and saw some embroidered trim and said to DH "That's the exact same shade of turquoise as the fabric I've had in the drawer for years". Confidently bought about ten yards of it, brought it home, and Lo and Behold, it was indeed. He was flabbergasted. Re the sewing gauge, this may be an American thing. I don't remember ever seeing one while growing up in England (but that was 30 years ago). I have several of them now, but also have a number of ordinary 6" rulers, in wood, metal and see-through plastic, and I use whichever is closest to hand.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

I thought I was the only one to do this ( except I am measuring metres)

Dee in Oz

I'll have to try turning my head away from my outstretched hand to see if I can measure a metre that way! I don't recall where I got the idea of measuring a yard this way but it was years ago.

There you go...lots of UK sewers don't have seam rippers, either! My mother never had one. But I couldn't get by without mine.

:) Trish

I hated the one I used. Was always jamming it into the fabric and ruining it. I like my thread snips and nail scissors MUCH better, thankyouverymuch.

Re: Sewing Gauge--Trishty