Cut Fabric for a Wall Hanging

Video Transcript

"DAVID A. CLEMEN: All right. Now that we have our frame and we know what our dimensions are to cover the frame and I've chosen these three fabrics, this kind of a wine color, the light base color and then the mid-brown color. I've got to cut--I'm going to do three panels just like you see in this one. So, for the brown, the dark brown, I'm going to make it--I'm going to make this one with the smaller strips. So, the width of the fabric and all these fabrics is 43 inches, so I know that I've covered the long ways for the length of my 30-inch frame. I mean, that's pretty clear. I just have to determine what size the panels are going to be. The dark brown might be 7 inches and the red might be 9 inches and then the base might just be 4 or 5 inches 'cause I want to make them different widths. So, I'm going to do the dark brown first, so I'm just going to set this up on the table here and then I'm just going to take my pencil, our #2 --there it is, and I'm going to spread the fabric out and I know that from my measuring the frame that I have to have 22 inches. So, basically, I'm going to make this one 7 inches. But now, since I'm sewing it to another panel, I have to add in half-an-inch seam allowance because I have to sew it to something; I can't just cut at 8 inches, and so, at the end, we'd nothing to sew to. So, since I need a half-inch seam allowance, I'm going to cut the strip 8-1/2 inches. And so, basically, I'll just come in measure of 8 and then go another half an inch and make a small mark, and then I'll just go down the fabric and make 8-1/2and it's hard to see them in this ruler but--and then I'll make another 8-1/2 there. And once I have those marks, then I can go across and measure it out. If I can find what--there's my little mark, do this, and then once I have my mark then all I have to do is grab my scissors and you can use--some people like to use pinking shears which cut the fabric in diagonal--diamond so it doesn't fray. But I'm going to just cut it straight with these scissors. And then once you get it going, it'll pretty much just follow the line, okay? So, that's how you cut the fabric."