OK, the prayerful customer gives you yardage that is "short" but you think you can "make it work". Where do you look first to "save" fabric? The deck area? the hidden portion of the boxing? do you eliminate welting?
How do you guys "make it work"?
Pulls save allot of fabric. On and inside arm measure to bury 2" under the rail and add a pull. Same for the IB and the rear of the inside arms and back. If you run out of fabric call the customer and have her get more. You can only do what is possible.
Most of the time, I don't allow for a self deck when figuring yardage, so I can't really save any there. You can save in other areas (such as hidden boxing, welt, etc). Another trick is to cut the outside panels only long enough to reach just below the skirt (bring the dust cover up the sides below the skirt).
But I try to make my customers understand that any money savings they may realize by skimping on the yardage will be more than offset by the extra labor costs for "Making it work".
Other that my recent "prayerful customer", I don't have a big problem with skimpers. In fact, most of my customers usually buy a couple more yards than I tell them to. If I know ahead of time that there's plenty of fabric, I install a self deck.
Use a Jesus black velvet poster for the outside back. She'll love it.
Make your welt cord from the scraps of fabric. It's a lot of pieces to sew together, and if the fabric is not too thick, the multiple diagonal seems won't be too noticeable. Ironing the seems helps to get them to be less bulky.
Do not match anything. If you can, cut vertical as well as railroaded, however you can make it work.
Pull tabs are the best idea, like Paul said, other than my first comment above.
gene
The above replies have it covered, even Genes idea would work in a pinch (although Elvis would be my 1st choice). The only thing I can add is if the fabric is a floral you can tell the customer it won't match (skirts, borders etc). Skirts especially take up a lot of fabric on a large repeat.
Or if the pattern runs up the bolt sometimes you can railroad it and save fabric. I've run chenille's sideways without to much problem.