Go and take a look in your sewing kit and I bet you’ll have a sewing gauge of some description in there.
There are loads of different types, some have more bells and whistles and others are pretty simple but I can almost guarantee you won’t have realised all the ways you can use them. Yes, they are great for measuring up hems or checking seam allowances but I have recently learnt that there are actually loads more ways you can use them.
These types of sewing gauges do have a few common features – they will all have both inches and centimetres, are made of metal and have a little slider in the middle that you can move along to what ever measurement you need. So lets take a look at some of the common, and less commonly known ways of using a sewing gauge.
Measuring
Ok, so this one is pretty obvious and probably needs little explanation. If you need to measure up things like hems, or press in something like an edge of a neck band by quarter of an inch you can set the little slider at the measurement you need and use the edge of the gauge along with the flat edge of the slider to get really accurate measurements.
BUT… something you might not have realised is that the sewing gauge has been designed with particular measurements in mind. Grab a tape measure and check out the different sides of the ruler – one of the long edges will most likely be 1/4″, one of the shorter ends will be 5/8″, and depending on how many bells and whistles your gauge has, there might even be other common measurements as well.
Turning Points
Have you ever noticed the little pointed corner on one short end of the sewing gauge? That isn’t just some strange fancy design. That is there to help you turn out sharp corners, like a collar or waistband. When you are ready to turn through your fabric and you need something with a point to get that corner nice and sharp, try reaching for your sewing gauge instead of a chopstick from the kitchen drawer.
Pressing Bias Binding
So this one really blew me away when I found out. I must have had my sewing gauge in my kit for at least 10 years and had never noticed that there were little holes in the points of the slider, or at least if I had noticed them I never gave them any thought. Turns out they have a purpose!
When you are making bias binding and you need to press in the long edges of your fabric, move it along the ironing board and keep pressing. You can attach your sewing gauge to your ironing board by putting a pin through these holes, anchoring them into the board. Your gauge now moves independently whilst the slider stays in place. Once you’ve placed your binding underneath the gauge and now how wide you need it to be you can then put another pin in the hole in the top corner, meaning that the gauge now stays perfectly in place, you can slide your binding along making it so much easier to press.
Marking Buttonhole Placement
Along one long edge of your sewing gauge will be little triangular notches, most commonly every inch or half an inch. These are great for marking the placement of your buttonholes, just place your sewing gauge along your button band and use an erasable marker in those notches where you want your buttonholes to be.
Measure Button Width
My final little nugget is that you can drop a button in the gap along the length of your sewing gauge and move the slider up to meet the button. This will show you the size of your button, particularly useful if you have a one-step buttonhole function on your machine or your sewing bound buttonholes.
This list is not exhaustive, believe it or not there are plenty of other uses for a sewing gauge but these are the ones that I have found to be most useful to me as a dressmaker. For a more in depth, closer look at all these steps make sure to check out my YouTube video at the top of this post or here. If you have any other uses for a sewing gauge that you think we should now about come and share them in the ThreadySetGo forum – it’s a completely free to join space for the sewing community.
This particular sewing gauge was purchased from Merchant & Mills.
