Sew much to do

I’m pretty sure I earned a sewing merit badge when I was in the Girl Scouts. I mean I assume there was a sewing merit badge and I had a lot of fluffing merit badges so that had to be one of them right? I wonder if the qualifications were that you had to sew the badge on your Girl Scout sash. I’m pretty sure my Mom did that for me. I did not take Home Economics in junior high. Do they even do that anymore? I just remember people carrying around bags of flour for a week and pretending they were babies. A deterrent to teenaged pregnancy maybe? So basically, I don’t ever remember learning to sew.

Anyway…my Mom gave me a sewing machine and a Reader’s Digest handbook on sewing probably 20 years ago. I just recently opened the book for the first time. I did use the sewing machine a long time ago when I had a minor infatuation with quilting before I decided it was a pain in my ass. The sewing machine moved from place to place and when the pandemic started, I got it out to make masks. They weren’t great masks, but it was something to do during all of the madness. I put the machine away again and then I remembered this messenger bag I had that I had covered with buttons and pins and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I actually think I left it in the house after the end of my other marriage and I’m pretty sure my ex set it on fire rather than returning it to me. It’s too bad really. There was a great rhinestone pin shaped like two pears that was my grandmother’s I think. So I decided that I could just make a new messenger bag. I’ve never actually made one before, but that is what the Google is for. I went to the fabric store and got out the old sewing machine. The process took a few hours and it wasn’t exceptionally difficult and the bag was pretty cute.

Well, now I had the bug and I was going to sew a dress. I looked online for patterns and found one that looked easy, but it was supposed to be made out of rayon challis, which I had not heard of before. I went to Joanne’s and asked the fabric people if they had rayon challis. A sweet man with a stutter, who was buying his own fabric, said that he had never seen rayon challis at Joanne’s, but he had seen it at Hobby Lobby. I don’t shop at Hobby Lobby so I figured I would look online later. In the meantime, I really “needed” to make a dress so I went to the table with the pattern books stacked all over it. I have no idea why I have fond memories of going to Hancock Fabrics when I was little. I never wanted to learn to sew. I think it was just all of the colors and notions and those funny pattern books. I flipped through a few books and found a seemingly simple maxi dress. I found the pattern in the file cabinets and then went on a search for fabric. I must have spent three hours in that store looking for the perfect fabric. I was attracted to all of the wild prints and colors, but would I actually wear any of that? I settled on a swirly blue pattern.

Now when you are just beginning to sew and you are looking at patterns, probably the best idea is to look for the “easy” patterns. They are clearly marked. I had been so busy trying to find a style that I liked that I forgot that part. Oops. But no matter. I was going to make this damn dress if it killed me. I cut out all of the pattern pieces and then pinned them to the fabric and cut all of that out. That took about one day. I think there were 437 separate pieces. Or at least close to that. Now reading patterns is like reading hieroglyphics. There are symbols all over the place and then there are several kinds of stitches that they define, but the definitions may or may not be in actual English words. I would stare at them for 15 minutes and still not have a clue what they were talking about. The actual directions for constructing the dress were much worse. “Pin the facing, right sides together, to the bottom of the front bodice section and baste.” Don’t you baste a turkey? I used a lot of the Google and YouTube. I still don’t understand what facing is.

On the second day, the sewing began. Now I’m not a sewing expert and can barely sew a straight line. And the thread was constantly messing up so I had to rethread the machine and start over. I didn’t know anything about thread tension and the machine was older and had some limitations. I had taken over the entire dining room. There were pieces of thread and fabric everywhere. Some of the directions were simple to follow and then some I don’t think I ever figured out and I just sort of fudged a few things. I was determined to get something done that actually resembled some sort of clothing and that took a while. Like the whole day. It was frustrating and then satisfying and then frustrating again. By the end of the day, I definitely did not have a dress, but I had the top part sort of looking like the top of a dress.

I couldn’t stop thinking about dress construction the whole night. I woke up early the next morning to start to work again. I couldn’t actually start sewing because the machine was so loud, but I could pin things together and press seams. As soon as Bill opened his eyes, I fired up old Bessie (okay that’s not really her name, but maybe it should have been). Another day of highs and lows. What the fluff is facing? How do you sew a three-dimensional curve? I just kept at it and by the end of day three, there was a dress. It was too big because I just don’t understand sizing, but it was a dress. I had Bill take some photos and I sent them to a few people. Mike said it looked like a Mrs. Roper dress. You know like from Three’s Company? He was exactly right. It could have come straight off of the set. I will say that I will probably never wear the dress. For one thing, it’s a pandemic and there’s nowhere to wear a dress like that. But I’m also not old enough to wear a Mrs. Roper dress. Maybe for Halloween sometime? Maybe. I was incredibly proud of finishing the dress though. A non-easy dress.

I decided after the Mrs. Roper dress that I needed a place to sew. It was impractical to haul all of the materials down to the dining room every time I wanted to make something. I had recently discovered Wayfair and they had the perfect sewing table in bright red. With my drafting table as a good place to cut fabric and the new sewing table, I felt like a real seamstress. Well, except for the fact that they can likely sew a dress in less than three days.

I found a website with rayon challis fabric and bought some for the original dress I had found online. I also found a free pattern for cute tote bags and I decided it’s never too early to start making Christmas gifts. I found adorable mix and match cotton prints from Denmark and ordered several yards worth for the bags. I went to Joanne’s for fusible fleece - - a necessity for making structured bags. Isn’t that a piece of information you needed in your brain? I also got a cute cotton print to make palazzo pants.

I found a dress online that I liked. Not a pattern, just a picture of a dress. I just assumed I could make it. No problem. I’ve made a dress before. I had decided not to make the easy dress I saw early on because now I was a seamstress. I used parts of the pattern from the first dress I made and made up the rest. Again, it took about three days and there were some moments where I wanted to just set the thing on fire. Like when I did the armhole completely backwards and had to take it apart and start over. In the end though, it was a cute dress. I’ve even gotten compliments on it from people who didn’t even know that I sewed it. Of course, when I washed it the first time, a really long thread from somewhere had come out so the whole thing could completely fall apart after only a few outings.

I found several sites with instructions for palazzo pants and made those too. The instructions for the waistband were completely incomprehensible. Take half the waist size and multiply times 2.473 and then subtract the circumference of the hip size and then add to the distance from your belly button to your neck and divide by your age. OK maybe not that bad, but once again, I had to just make up my own directions. They worked pretty well except they are not very easy to put on and take off and when I wear them, I live in constant fear that the elastic in back will snap and the pants will fall off. I had an old pattern for wide legged pants so I made those too and they ended up very cute, however, I made them out of stretchy fabric and they tend to get longer as I’m wearing them making them a bit of a fall hazard.

I started making the tote bags and they were indeed adorable. After a few, we made a visit to a store here called Sew Much More. Oh good gracious it’s like the mother ship of sewing. We had just gone in with the intention of looking around to compare sewing machines to what I had been using. When we walked through the door though, all bets were off. I felt like we were test driving cars. They have machines that make entire quilts or embroider intricate patterns by themselves. It was quite an impressive spectacle. Kara, our salesperson, showed us various machines. I had no interest in anything too fancy. At first. By the third machine, Old Bessie looked like a nasty old stinky shoe. We ended up with a Bernina 435 and it’s absolutely fantastic. It has dozens of types of stitches. It can sew a buttonhole in seconds when you just enter in the button size. Straight lines are a snap and the stitches are perfect. I’m almost afraid to use it because I fear it’s too smart for me, but it makes sewing so much more fun. I asked them about sewing classes and of course, during Covid, they don’t have anything in person, but they have videos online and I can always just go in and ask the staff questions about how to do different things.

As Alicia pointed out, sewing is my “video game.” I just can’t stop. I start sewing and I’m obsessed. It is completely distracting and challenging. I love it and hate it all at the same time. OK hate is a strong word, but I realize that hours go by and I’m still sewing and I haven’t gotten anything else done and Bill and the girls have been neglected so then I feel guilty. But during this pandemic, it’s such a relief to just be focused on what I am doing at that moment and none of the other crap that’s happening in the world.

After more tote bags, I made an adorable button-down shirt. I had seen a photo of Lily Allen in this really cute top that sort of resembled a pajama top so I found a pajama top pattern and made it with these really funky fabrics. It looks nothing like Lily Allen’s top, but it’s very cute. I’m still afraid everything I make will just spontaneously fall apart while I’m out in public, but so far that hasn’t happened.

I saw a Tory Burch dress online that was $500 and I was determined that I could make it. I don’t even know if I liked it, but it was like I could see the parts of the dress and how it was put together. I could not find the right fabric and then I had this great idea to make it a fall dress out of flannel. I mean all warm and cozy? How cute is that? I found fabric for $2.99, which is such a deal and the color was so lovely. Again, I went into obsession mode and worked on it for three days. I installed a zipper, which was very exciting and the top part of the dress came out absolutely perfect. I figured out how to make the long sleeves and the armholes and while it was all very elaborate, I was so impressed with myself that I was actually doing it. And then I added the bottom tier of the dress. I stood back and realized I had just spent three days sewing an old-fashioned flannel nightgown. There was no dressing this sucker up. A nightgown. Three days for this! I looked at the Tory Burch dress and noticed that the second tier was much too long. I pinned the third tier further up and it looked better. But I’d have to cut the dress in half and do the bottom tier all over again. I sort of wanted to cry. I put it away and on day four, cut the dress in half and did the bottom tier again. Then I slimmed down the sleeves and added cuffs with buttons. Cuffs! With buttons! The end result was sort of a flannel nightgown, but with some boots and a scarf or pearls, maybe sort of a dress. We will see if I wear it.

So that’s where I am right now. I don’t know what I will make next. There’s some yardwork that needs to be done so maybe I’ll take a short break. I love that I have another bonafide hobby. I always wanted to have hobbies other than eating candy. One positive result of Covid. And there aren’t that many, that’s for damn sure. I hope others are finding their “video game” that keeps them distracted from the stress and anxiety that has encompassed the world. If not, I highly recommend sewing. It’s quite fulfilling. Sometimes.