random thoughts – Day 2,219 (Tuesday) – making the cut

The fabric was unfurled.

As foretold yesterday, the cutting of the fabric commenced today. The fabric (5 yards at 55-inches wide) was unfurled on the floor because no tables or counters are long enough. The first cut, to even the edge of the fabric, met with resistance in the form of a rotary cutter blade that has seen better times. It required multiple efforts to achieve the objective of the single straight edge. That led to a break for online shopping for replacement blades, which are about a dozen projects overdue. Blades were ordered and will deliver on the morrow with fabric clips and magic tools for threading cording like hoodie and sweat pant strings through a casing that were ordered a couple hours earlier.

This rotary blade issue did not delay production. Fortunately, there were other cutting implements available. Using the calculations calculated yesterday, pinking shears were used to cut the many strips that form the tiers of the skirt. There was some minor slippage of fabric and the strips are not 100% straight but I can deal with that when sewing.

After each couple of strips were cut of the black, purple, and gold metallic fabric, the strips were counted. While in the home stretch, with 17 strips cut and just four left to go, the status count revealed an issue and illuminated the one calculation I hadn’t verified. It turns out that 21 strips of 9” fabric total 5.25 yards, but my fabric was just a hair over the five-yard mark and I would be one strip short at the predetermined depth. 

Lunch break.

There was some fast thinking and it was decided to cut the remaining strips at six inches so the circumference was correct and I could make up the length in the remaining tiers in the fabric that hadn’t been cut yet. One of the nine-inch strips gets 45-inches trimmed off for the other layer and then will be trimmed to six-inches to match its own tier. Whew.

After resolving the issue and altering the depth of the last strips to be cut in the fancy fabric, I found myself standing in the kitchen for a drink of water. That’s when I noticed it was 2:30, breakfast had been hours ago, and one of the avocados bought a few days ago was perfectly ripe. So, when the sewing got tough, this tough sewist took an avocado and bagel break. And it was good.

Next up - sewing.

After the late lunch break, the tier depths were recalibrated for the second fabric. Solid color fabric was laid out (4.5 yards at 44” wide) and cut to a newly adapted wider depth to account for the loss of three inches in the fancy fabric tier. And now, it is all cut out, including the waistband casing. 

Tomorrow, the sewing may begin. Or not. It was gorgeous out today and the windows were open and I felt a bit guilty being inside cutting fabric instead of outside enjoying sunshine, but I was finally ready and it needed to get started. The muse was calling.