A New Use for an Old Tool – Card Making with a Sewing Gauge

I have had my sewing kit since high school home ec. class (I’m not going to tell you how old it is!), and one of the tools in it is a sewing gauge.   Recently, I discovered that this tool is very useful for making sure panels are straight on my cards.  I am usually a pretty good “eye-baller” but have a little trouble when positioning/adhering long, skinny panels that are kind of far from the edges (they always end up crooked!) or very small panels that have lots of space on all 4 sides (I have a hard time centering them). What is great about this tool is that once you determine how far away from the edge of the card you want your panel, you set the “sliding measure” and you can very quickly check all points on your panel to see if the distance from the edge is uniform.

(Check two points on same side to see if the panel is straight.)

(Check both sides to see if the panel is centered on right and left.)

A sewing gauge can be purchased in your local fabric store or online and is pretty inexpensive.  I’ve been using mine often; it has become one of my favorite tools!

Thanks for checking out my post!