You are in the fabric store and you find that perfect piece of fabric, but you just don't know what you re going to make from it, and the cost will not allow you to just buy 5 yards. So what do you do?
On the Ikat Bag blog today, LiEr wrote an excellent tutorial about how to estimate the yardage needed to layout different patterns, when you do not have a yardage chart to go by. She does all her pieces by custom draft, so estimating is a very important skill.
It's also important for those who sew with patterns because if you find that perfect piece of fabric, you need to be able to make a smart decision about your purchase.On a side note, commercial patterns can also be a good resource for this. If you know what you want to make, you can find a similar style in a pattern catalog and follow the yardage chart on the back of its pattern envelope to estimate the fabric requirements.
Never forget to allow extra for pattern matching, one-way layout, shrinkage during fabric pre-treatment, and sizing alterations, especially length added to all pieces.
Enjoy. I did.
2 comments:
Hello Mary! Thank you for commenting and linking - I so appreciate it. I am so glad I came to visit - I think I shall be coming back very often to check out more sewing techniques and tips. Thank you!
I really should take more care in being precise about yardage. My drafting teacher was all about optimizing layout for saving money. Her name was also Mary and she would be ashamed of me. Thanks for the reminder.
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