Math! I know, again? And so soon after the last science lesson.

So, this skirt has this big cutout to show an underskirt trimmed with lace. Time to figure out how big it should be.

I used the INCREDIBLY SCIENTIFIC METHOD of holding my ruler up to the computer screen.

Now the math: My skirt height is 36 inches tall (it’s really convenient having one’s waist-to-floor measurement be exactly a yard. Or maybe it just makes me feel special.)

So, to keep things in proportion:

Which gives a cutout height for me of 16 inches! Except when I did this, I totally messed up the math and calculated 12. And eyeballing the skirt, that seemed too short, so I upped it to 14 or so. So much for math eh?

Then to figure out how wide this cutout should be at the bottom.

And now here is the fun part. You realize every single one of these pictures shows the dress from a slight angle. Or the back. Not a *single* one showed the dress straight on so I could see the exact angle the trim should hit the bodice, telling me where the triangle point should be. Museums, don’t you know there are obsessive costumers trying to recreate dresses? Why don’t you take photos from every angle with exact measurements?

It’s definitely a sharp angle towards the back, and a shallow angle towards the front.

Or make that a shallow angle towards the back and a sharp angle in the front?

I proceeded to scour the internet, and came across this photo that someone took at the exhibit in Washington.

Edelweiss Patterns photo from the First Ladies’ Gown Collection at the National History Museum

Finally the other side of the dress! Which didn’t tell me much. So I said screw it, marked a place that looked reasonable, and measured out an isosceles triangle (aka left and right sides the same length) and cut it out.

That looks totally reasonable!

Moral of the story is do math, or science, or eyeball it, or whatever the hell you feel like doing. And it will probably be fine. And then you drink some wine (or equally attractive non alcoholic bevrage) to celebrate your awesome self.