Monday, October 17, 2011

Overheard

Overheard last week at Hancock's, where I had gone to buy patterns while they were on sale:
"How much do you want of this?" asked the cutting lady, about a pretty red silky print
"One and 7/8 yard" replied the customer.

I raised my eyebrows and whispered to Mr. Hunting Creek that I had never bought 7/8ths of anything my whole life! He agreed that that was silly - why not just round up and get 2 yards? "Who calls for 7/8s of a yard?" he asked.
The back of the pattern envelope, I told him. And those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. You might need more or less.

They didn't have Simplicity 3536 (a vain hope!)- so of course I bought ten other patterns to make up for that. This is the same kind of thinking that leads to extra fabric buying...just in case.

1 comment:

Uta said...

Well, I'm certainly one of those people, except I will shave off another 1/8 of a yard or so! I learned this from my mother who sewed a lot of clothes and didn't have money to spare. I don't remember having too little fabric; the layouts in the pattern magazines are usually generous. I don't remember coming up short; unless, of course, I choose a different pattern. The practise isn't so great when buying for kids' clothes and then waiting a year (and a couple of inches) before making them up! On the other hand I hate having scraps and then not knowing what to do with them...