Saturday, August 8, 2009

I couldn't sew without....part 1

I was having a tidy up in my sewing room the other day and was making sure I placed my most used tools near my sewing machine. I started to think about how much I use some of them and how they make my sewing life so much easier. I thought I would do some posts over the next few weeks and each one will feature one of my most used tools.



I have had this sewing gauge for so many years I can't even remember how old it is! It has been ironed (almost lost it as it warped!!), thrown in the bin with my scraps, lost on numerous occasions! I always panic slightly when I can't find it straight away, after pins and scissors (and sewing machine of course :-)) I think this must be my most used item when I sew! It has inches on one side and millimetres on the other - mentally, I tend to jump between both when I am sewing so I find it really handy. I have never seen another one of these the same. I did find a metal one once but the edges were sharp and it wasn't as nice to use - I also have the terrible habit of putting it between my teeth while I pin and the metal one felt horrid in my mouth, haha - gross I know!

What can't you sew without?

2 comments:

Sharon said...

Can I please show my ignorance, what do you use this for?

kiltsnquilts said...

Sharon, not ignorance at all - sorry I didn't think to explain fully what I used it for. It is a measuring guage - fantastic if you want to turn a hem, just choose the measurement and then use that piece of the tool all the way round your hem. Much easier to handle than a ruler or tape measure. I also use it for marking my seam allowance when tracing BWOF patterns, marking my stitching line for a lapped zip insertion - and lots of other jobs I can't think of :-)) As you can see it has most m/m's from 2" (51mm) down to 1/4" (6mm), likely the most used ones. Hope that helps?