C=πd

I'm running a temperature.  Fortunately we have new neighbours who seem lovely and who have kids that bear has been playing with non-stop for five hours so I haven't been asked to do much joined up thinking.

However, as I am running a temperature, strange things look like a good idea.  DH has a laundry basket that has a liner - which I shrunk.  I wouldn't mind, but I am quite vanilla with my washing.  I use a laundry powder that works at 30 degrees C and if necessary I have a disinfectant I can add for things like towels and bedding.  As an aside, the cost of a wash is apparently mostly taken up mainly by heating the water.  If there are any ways you can wash in cooler temperatures, you save money. 

So while I am away with the fairies, I decide it's a good idea to make a replacement liner.  I still have lots of fabric left from the duvet stash.  I think it was over a year ago, at least, but I bought a job lot of single duvet covers for a very inexpensive price from eBay (who is my friend).  A single duvet has around 4 metres of fabric at around 135 cm wide (around 50 inches wide x 4 yards after being trimmed) and if I got a desperately inexpensive single duvet from Tesco brand new I would get that amount of thin but adequate polycotton fabric for £8.  The fabric I got from eBay in the bundle was considerably less expensive and somewhat better quality. 

I was proud of my next step.  I put an elastic band around a sharpie and another pen.  I used the pen with the cap on to trace the lid of the laundry basket but the sharpie made the mark - I wish I had thought to take a pic.  I know it will be old news to most readers, but it meant that I incorporated a seam allowance of one biro depth.  This meant I had the circle that would be the base of the replacement laundry bin liner.  All I needed to do was work out the length of the strip to make the body of the liner - the tube that attached to the base.  This meant sums.

I could have tried measuring around the edge of the lid, but in my experience I spend hours swearing as the tape measure slips so I decided to use maths. Unfortunately bear had already gone to bed.  I don't do numbers even if I am in my right mind.  I get bear to check all my sums.  Without him, I had to turn to Wikihow, and apparently if you multiply the diameter of the circle by pi you get the circumference.  The circle I cut out was far from perfect, and I have little confidence in my ability to measure straight but I am halfway to hand sewing the base onto the tube and it seems to fit.  I'm sure I'll be able to finish it tomorrow.  I'll post a pic if I manage it.  Until then, here is a pic of something I consider an appropriate form of pie.

Image from WikiCommons, taken by Timothy Muza and in the public domain