Mark Circles on Fabric with Your Sewing Gauge
Sometimes you need to mark out a perfect circle in a specific size and one way to do this that doesn’t involve poking around your kitchen trying to find just the right lid or some other object to trace is to use your handy dandy sewing gauge.
All you need to do is anchor it with a pin through one of the holes in the slider, insert the tip of a pen in the hole at the end of the gauge, and then rotate the gauge to trace out a circle or scallop.
Which is exactly what I did when I needed a circle that was slightly larger than the moon in order to reverse applique to make this adorable drawstring bag:
To use your sewing gauge to make a circle or scallop, first you’ll need a surface that is both somewhat stable and can be pinned through.
In the photo at the top of this post it is pinned to a Dritz Superboard—which is something I can not live without in my sewing room! You can find the Superboard at various places online by searching for it by name. Here is a whole thread of people talking about why they have and love this cardboard grid.
Another option is to pin it to a wool pressing pad that is fairly firm.
The two things to pay attention to while using the sewing gauge as a compass are:
If you need an exact diameter for a circle or specific height for a scallop, the hole at the end isn't actually at the very end of the sewing gauge. It’s 1/8” from the end so you’ll need to accommodate for difference to get to your exact measurement.
Make sure nothing is in the way of the gauge while it rotates around! It's easy to knock stuff around or onto the floor and end up with a wobbly looking circle if there is something in the path of the gauge while it's rotating.
Even if you don’t plan to ever trace out a circle or scallops, a sewing gauge is one of those sewing tools that is just so useful and while you can sew without one, they are inexpensive so it makes sense to have at least one in your sewing tool kit. Mine gets used almost daily for something (often a Grocery Bag or Basket Bag) and I have several of them since they are indispensable and I like to have one nearby at my various sewing stations.