Hem Tracer (adjustable)

The problem?

I was making the pattern for a bucket hat the other day when I realized I had to go back on all the patterns and trace another similar line for hem allowance before I cut out and started sewing the pieces together. It was more time consuming than just eyeballing it when cutting the pieces out, but I wanted to be accurate. When I researched for an existing tool, I could not find one. So, of course, I decided I could probably make one of my own, using items from home.

~2 pencils/pens

~2 hair ties

~a clip/clothespin

First, grab a clip and two pencils. I used orange so that I could see it against the material I was using.
Put the clip on its side, in between both pencils so that you see the V shape of the clothespin.

With one of the hair ties, start wrapping the 3 items together until it's tight, like in the picture. It doesn't matter how many times you wrap it, as long as it can still move up and down. (This will let us change the measurements of the lines.)

If you like the distance between the pencils then you can leave it like that and use the wrapped hair tie as a grip while you trace a pattern.
If you want more hem allowance, more distance between the two pencils, then you can use the 2nd hair tie to keep the ends of the pencils stuck together. For this, it's better to keep it extra tight so it won't slip and fall off. Now that you have the ends tied together, you can adjust the distance between the pencils by simply sliding the clothespin up or down along with the hair tie. The higher the clothespin is, the greater distance you will get, and the lower the clothespin is, the less distance you will get between the pencils. Now all you have to do is get comfortable with using this small yet resourceful tool.