Today's chuckle

Going to a mildly dressy do this Friday - nothing special, but definitely a little sparkle needed. I have two sparkly tops, but the black long skirt I often wear with either of them is (a) tired-looking, (b) boring and (c) no longer stylish. Besides which, this really isn't a "long-skirt" event, although dressy pants will be very acceptable

What to do, what to do. Brilliant idea - use my wide pants pattern I designed two years ago and still looks good on me. Therefore, need some soft, drapy fabric in basic black. Off to Hancock Fabrics, and there, after some searching, I found just what I want. A length of my current fave, rayon challis, but not much left on the bolt. Now, I need three yards if I am to give it a self-fabric half lining, four if I line it completely. It really does hang so much better with at least a half-lining.

Took it to the cutting counter and asked the nice lady to measure it for me. One yard, two yards, three yards, FOUR yards. Yippee, I'll take it, I said. She replied........er, um, it's actually four yards three inches, do you want the extra three inches?...........................

Yerss, I'll take it, I can't see making the poor lady stand there cutting off a three inch wide strip of 58" fabric.

By contrast, when I ordered some fabrics on line earlier this year, the one-yard pieces were generously cut, and some which were obviously bolt ends had anywhere from a quarter to almost a whole yard extra thrown in.

Oh well. It is stitched down the edges, been through the washer and dryer, ready to lay out the pattern and start cutting in daylight tomorrow.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary
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Glad you were lucky enough to find the cloth that you wanted in the yardage you needed! Barbara in FL

Reply to
Bobbie Sews Moore

Which she would do, putting it aside to go in the remnant bin. Leaving you with a scant four yards - on one end of the fabric, anyway, perhaps a little less on the other end. It is mind-boggling. Somewhere in the background is someone counting paperclips.....

Reply to
Pogonip

I always say, "yes of course, I'll take the extra [bit] 'at the 50% off REMNANT' price". In fact I have been known to make a quick guestimate of how much is on a bolt and order something less than that... but "agree" to buy the excess at

50% off. ;-)

Post a link to pics!

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

Oh yes, I had an instance in JoAnn's a year or two ago when I pointed out to the clerk that the fabric had beeen cut decidely unevenly, and I expected her to allow for that. Instead, she solemnly cut off a triangle, four inches wide at one end, tapering down to a point at the other, threw it out, then cut my fabric!!!!!!!

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

I never thought of that! However, this fabric was only $4.99 a yard, less 10% off. Three inches is one-twelfth of a yard, which makes the cost less than 40c. And for that sum, the company would make the poor woman cut off a three inch slice, then re-measure it, wrap it, label it and put it in the remnant bin? Oh well.

In any case, I hadn't realized there was a major sale on, but while there I remembered I was getting very low on size #11 machine needles. Bought four packs - regular, ball point, stretch and microtech - plus, as always, a couple of spools of white and one of black thread. Also five yards of waistband elastic; and when I got to the checkout I found all these latter were 60% off. Then I produced my ASG membership card, which gave me another 10% off. My total bill for the expedition was $25 and change, which I thought was VERY cheap, considering.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

And here I had the impression that the American Sewing Guild was a support group. Instead, I learn that they are enablers.

Happy new year!

--Karen D.

Reply to
Veloise

Aaah interesting! I've always wondered about the needle sizes and how universal it was.

Here in Oz, the needles I buy have 2 numbers on them 70/10, 80/12, 75/11 but when I go into a shop and ask for needles it's always the higher number they use, like 80 90 etc. I've now been trained to use the higher numbers.

Is the higher number always the one used in the US? And what size do others round the world ask for when needle shopping?

Reply to
FarmI

So Hancock's gives a Guild discount? I didn't know that! Does JoAnn's?

Reply to
Alice

Yes indeed. The JoAnn's discount card is bound into one issue - the Fall one I think - of the ASG mag. At Hancock's, you just show your ASG card.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

Yes, they have both numbers on here, but I learned in childhood to use

9, 11, 14, 16, and, rarely, 18, plus the various specialty needles such as leather etc., and so I still use the old numbers. It was enough for me to have to figure out ballpoint, stretch, micro, metallic etc. One of these years, I suppose I will have to learn the other system, at which point I shall probably fall back on taking the empty packet to the shop and trying to match it!

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

It will be a while, because (a) the digital camera is malfunctioning at the moment, let's hope we can get it sorted out soon, and (b) I don't have a place to post them, and have not yet researched which of the free sites is the easiest to use AND keeps the pics up the longest.

Any recommendations?

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

Olwyn Mary, I've been using PictureTrail, and have had photos on that site for a year now.

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's very easy to upload photos (you can upload several at a time), and you can do a much better job of categorizing them than I have. Oh, and it's free, and they will email you if someone leaves a comment on a photo! And Happy New Year to all my sewing pals out in the world.

Reply to
Karen Maslowski

I use photobucket.com, and find it very easy to use. They've never taken down anything I've put there.

Reply to
Pogonip

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