springdellgirl

The Sewing Chronicles

Sewing 101


Here is a day my mother thought would never come. Has hell frozen over? You might want to check...because yes it is true... I am sewing!! WHO KNEW? I have done it...I have FINALLY made some progress on a goal that has been on my list of goals for years and years and years.

Let me preface this by saying that my mother is a seamstress extraordinaire. She can do amazing things. She even made my wedding dress. She is incredible.



Therefore it has been a MAJOR disappointment to her that none of her four daughters has followed in her sewing footsteps. I know she has dreamed of a day when she and her daughters would go to the fabric store together, look at patterns, and sew together, even (gulp) quilt together. She has been hugely disappointed. We have all HATED anything and everything to do with sewing. I blame her passion for it. She loves it so much that naturally we would all hate it since as teenagers who wanted to do what their mother did for a good time...not us! Plus she scarred us for life by the hours and hours she left us sitting in a station wagon bored out of our minds while she was in the fabric store. Just the word "fabric store" can cause my eyes to glaze over and roll into the back of my head. Then throw in the fact that she was the sewing Nazi when we actually had to sew for home Ec...great artists are probably not the best teachers...and the fact that I have ZERO natural skill (remember...I did get a D in home Ec) didn't help matters.

What has kept me away for years is that sewing requires math...especially fractions...ugh. Darn that Brad Roper for distracting me in 4th grade when we were learning fractions and I never recovered mathematically. Then the fact that it is all basically geometry...double ugh. I only passed high school geometry by my charm and flattery of my very nerdy geometry teacher...I flunked every test and yet got a "C". I can't remember his name but how I still love the man. Then add in that it requires eye/hand coordination and some technical skill and you can see how I would be setting myself up for abject failure.

But I want cute things...in cute fabrics and colors...and I want them for cheap. Ergo I must sew. My mom swore up and down (literally) that one day we would WISH we knew how to sew. We laughed in her face. (We were snotty girls). Then it happened... last Saturday I stepped into "no man's land" the "sewing" side of Joann's Crafts. Clutch the pearls. My eyes glazed and my head spun. So many bobbins, thread, bolts of fabric...I staggered my way over to the pattern books. Again if you knew the amount of mind-numbing time I had spent as a child waiting for my mom while she leisurely flipped through these books you would understand my instant claustrophobia . I decided that my first project must be simple...pillowcases. As I went through one book after another I couldn't find a pattern for pillowcases. There were patterns for all kinds of bedding/bedroom treatments but nothing for plain pillowcases. That meant one thing...I must call my mother.

When I called her...hiding in stacks of fabric...whispering ...to find out where the patterns for pillowcases were...she laughed at me...yes...she mocked me...and said rather haughtily "WELL...I bet you wish you would've paid more attention when you used to come to the fabric store with me!!" FYI: I guess you don't buy pillowcase patterns...you just use a pillowcase and take the measurements. Luckily mom took pity on me and told me what kind of fabric I needed, what measurements to tell the lady that cuts the fabric, and helped me get all that I needed.

Then she spent all Sunday afternoon and evening on the phone talking me through the whole process of sewing the pillowcases. Salvage edge? Right sides together? Huh? I'm sure it was excruciating for her...I could only do baby steps and then would have to call her back for the next step...by 10 pm they were done and I emailed her the proof. (By the way...I had no idea so much ironing was involved. Egads.)



Here I am hard at work. Notice the furrowed brow. My family was forced into exile downstairs as I needed COMPLETE SILENCE to concentrate and work my magic. Only Tyler was allowed to come upstairs and help me thread the machine and wind the bobbin. (Since apparently you need to be a freakin' genius to read and understand the instruction manual...good thing I had a genius on hand...and as it appeared the whole thing was written in every language BUT English!!)

But I persevered...my goal of not swearing sadly took a back seat but I SEWED something...two somethings actually. I made two cute pillowcases for Reilly and Ailey. Behold the finished products:



It is hard to tell from the picture but the pillowcase is pink with white polka dots, and the band (yes...I used two contrasting fabrics...daring huh?) is white with pink polka dots and the ribbon is pink with white polka dots. I was quite ecstatic!! I'm making pillowcases for the whole family now! After that my next project will be...dun dun dun dun...a table runner. For all you girls who sew...Jenny, Kristi...you know who you are. I am in awe!!

And Mom...

YOU WERE RIGHT AND I WAS WRONG!!