Fabric Conversion Chart

That's great Beverly. I'm going to print it out and carry it in my wallet. Juno

Yes, thanks!!

You're welcome. I usually order the yardage listed for the narrower width, but I *always* have fabric left over...too little to actually do anything with. Caveat: I would still order extra for napped and/or fabric which required pattern matching.

Beverly

I Tend to order extra and then use it to make Lazy Girl Purses. Sometimes I give small amounts of Cotton prints to my DDIL for her crafts or I make stuffed animals and pillows for the little DGC The fabric I ordered today from Fabric.com for my skirt and top I ordered more than I'll need but figured I'd have extra to make summer shorts or a skirt of some kind Juno

These days I tend to use the nap layout even on plain fabrics, unless I really NEED to be economical! Things just hang better...

I've taken to making my slacks two pairs at a time, so that I can lay all the pieces of each pair on the same nap and still interlock for an economical layout.

(Not to mention that a suit with two pairs of pants is *still* a good idea!)

Joy Beeson

ALWAYS a good move!

You know, if I'm buying expensive fabric for a particular project, I'll buy enough to cut this way, but if I have a bit of bargain fabric that is only enough if I top-to-tail and dovetail the bits, I'll go for it! Funny the way we think, sometimes. :)

Not really. After all, if we are buying expensive fabric, we want to be sure the finished garment LOOKS expensive. OTOH, if we have a leftover or inexpensive remnant that we THINK we might be able to squeeze something out of, we do what we have to in order to make it work.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

We were raised, many of us, to believe: Wear it out, Use it up, Make it do or do without.

Yeah, which is not really a bad idea even today, and some of us (read: me) were also raised to have an approach to sewing of, "Find the cheapest thing that will do and use it," which is something that I had a really hard time getting past but did thanks to the sewing newsgroups.

And given how prices are rising, I think it might now apply "especially today". Every time I go near a shop I notice how expensive things are getting. I bought 2 sets of machine needles and 3 rolls of thread the other day and there was nothing special about any of them and it came to $21. I nearly dropped down in a faint.

and some of us (read:

:-)) Everyone deserves a little bit of luxury now and then, even if it is only a bit of drop dead gorgeous fabric.

I buy the ones I use most in bulk packs of 100. The last pack of Universal size 80 needles cost just under £20, or about 19.5p each as opposed to almost 24p per needle when bought in packs of 10 the same... I never buy mixed packs.

Reminder to self: Need new bulk packs of 70's and 80's! Ouch!

And if you look carefully in the right places, you can get really good fabric at bargain prices. At the moment my fave rave placesfor brillianr bargains are Croft Mill, The Remnant House, and Abakahn. Details on my Fabric List.