Cutting the pile down

I meant to take the camera today and take a picture of the 'to be cut' pile, but I forgot...

My helpers didn't make it in today, and I cut by myself. So I didn't make nearly as much progress as I'd hoped to make. And, one of the ladies had purchased some brown rib knit from the dollar table at Wal-Mart that 1) had shrunk considerably and 2)was sliced off grain. That is, it was knit in a tube, then split along one side to make it flat. The only trouble is, they did not cut it straight. Consequently, the cut edge literally spirals around the tube. I've run into this problem before and should have specified 'no knits, please' so as to avoid that issue but, well, I didn't. So I had to fold the fabric down one rib while one cut edge sloped towards the fold and the other sloped away (it had a rise vs. run slope of 1/2" to 10 1/2"...I was curious and I checked it). I cut one long piece, then had to refold the thing along a new rib to move the cut edges closer together again...anyway, I didn't have a even a pinch of fabric left after cutting the two lengths for the gown and had to go get another yard and a half for the sleeves.

Fortunately, she'd gotten it at the dollar table at the Wal-mart just down the street from church and it was on my way home. So I stopped and the clerk there remembered cutting it and helped me unearth the remnants of that bolt. I'd mentioned on the email I'd sent round to the sopranos and altos that the best place to find the fabric was that particular Wal-mart, and she'd had several come in there. In fact, one lady had brought in a print out of the email with her, then forgotten it. The clerk wrote 'We should probably keep this' on the print out and set it up where they could see it.

She said it was a great help when folks came in...she knew to tell them they needed 'Four, two and two'...yards of three fabrics.

That was a much needed smile after a long slow day... ;)