The Measuring Tape Mystery: A Cozy Mystery of Extended Evidence and a Ruler's Ruse

📏 Custom dressmaker and tailoring expert Tilly Tape is preparing for the annual Fashion Gala when the event's head judge-a notorious perfectionist with exacting standards-is found dead in her studio, strangled with a vintage measuring tape from her own collection. The police suspect a crime of passion, but Tilly notices the tape's measurements have been deliberately altered and the victim's critique notes contain a coded pattern in the margin measurements. With her dressmaking business under suspicion and the fashion community in turmoil, Tilly must measure twice and cut once through this tangled investigation. Assisted by her tailoring apprentices and the handsome metrology expert analyzing precision tools, Tilly uncovers a scheme involving counterfeit measuring tools, manipulated garment patterns, and a plot to sabotage custom clothing businesses. From suspicious calibration errors that reveal intentional tampering to pattern pieces that don't match the stated measurements, every inch tells a story. But when Tilly discovers the victim was systematically sabotaging designers' measurements to ruin their reputations, she realizes the killer is protecting a fashion empire built on deception. With the gala approaching and the real saboteur still taking measurements, Tilly must align the facts before her own business gets permanently cut from the pattern.