What a clever idea. I'll have to look at my jacket patterns with a new eye to details.

To Knitnut: Figuring out the sides of the 2 squares is a little tricky, but remember in Algebra I that C squared = A squared + B squared. So in the big square the side called C, (which is the hypotemuse of a right triangle) is 45 inches (your waist measurement.) So you need to square that (45 x 45 = 2025.) Then for the first step of figuring out the side measurement you need to figure half of that (2025 divided by 2 = 1012.5) Now you need to find the square root of that number which is 31.819 (lets just call it 32 inches.) I think the article said to add an inch for the seem allowance so that would make the large square 33 inches on each side. The sides of the small square is equal to half of the sides of the big square (in this case half of 33 = 16.5 inches.)

Ha, you sound like my twin, I'm also 5'1" and have a 45 inch waist.

To Ciela, The hip measurement was fine, bit we had only added one inch on the sides of the squares for the seam allowances like the article said. We just didn't realize how much that particular fabric would ravel. So we ended up doing the seams wrong sides together and then again only right sides together. Not planning on doing that from the beginning meant we did not add enough extra on the sides of the squares to allow for the double seam allowances.

To sewfashionistic: I'll try to answer your question: Well mathematically speaking 1 yard of material that is 60 inches wide has 2160 square inches in it, but a yard of material that is 45 inches wide only has 1620 inches in it. I'm petite so when I make slacks I never need to buy as much material as a pattern calls for, because I can lay the pattern out on the crossgrain of the material, which is different than called for in the pattern layout.

What a gorgeous one of a kind wedding gown!