time to cut everything out

once all of the pieces of the pattern are cut out, it's time to trace them onto the fabric and cut those pieces out. to prevent the fabric from stretching, and to make sure i can get straight lines, i take a piece of contact paper and tape it down to my table with the sticky side up, then lay my fabric on that. i trace the pieces onto the fabric and then cut them out making sure to leave about a 1/4 of an inch extra fabric around all the edges for the seam allowance. for concave curves i've found it's easier to just hit them with pinking shears rather than making a million tiny little cuts to let the fabric stretch.