Most of the "measuring" comments I've read here really brought back some fond memories and a smile to my face. My mother raised us 4 kids as a single parent by sewing for the public from our home. I remember the cans to raise her cutting table, the bias tape card for measuring hems, and cutting out a pattern with anything from her extra scissors to a clean rock to hold it down. One year for Mother's day when both of my daughters were toddlers, I made replicas of their little hands from dough and even painted them with red fingernails and wrote her a poem about her "helping hands". Thanks to you fellow-sewers for letting me share these special memories. Mom left us in January 2001 and is now making robes for the angels.