Cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth

Origin of: Cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth

Cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth

Very sensible expression from tailoring that now means to act in accordance with one’s resources or to live within one’s means. It appears in John Heywood Proverbs (1546) as, “cut my coat after my cloth” but since it was already a well-known proverb then, it may well be much older than the mid-1500s.