“Yes,” answered Margaret, “and these will be the last.”
“What are they to be?” asked the King again.
“Mother bought me a third of a yard of handkerchief linen to make some handkerchiefs. Can you tell me how?” she asked her friend, holding up some fine white cloth.
“I suppose the linen is thirty-six inches, or a yard, wide?” he said.
Margaret took her tape measure from the work-basket and measured the goods.
“That’s the width,” Margaret told Sir Bodkin.
“Then you can cut it into three twelve-inch squares. First cut off the selvedge on each end. That’s the woven edge on the sides of the cloth; and fold the linen in three across the long way of the piece,” directed Sir Bodkin.
“Take a One-Eyed Fairy in your hand and with his toe pick up a thread running the same way you wish to cut the squares apart. Pull the thread out and cut where it leaves a little track. This is called cutting by a thread,” said he to Margaret.
“Fold each square over diagonally to see if it is the same on all four sides. If it is, then it’s a perfect square and we can go on with the edges,” Sir Bodkin told his mistress.
