Inspired by http://createology.blogspot.com/blog...I thought I would let you in on an ashamedly well known secret that only my good friends are privy too! My sewing ability is for nought!
You see when I was growing up, my dear mother was a wonderful homemaker. She actually had a masters in psychology but it didn't work on me too well...or maybe it has at some points in my life, but that's another story.
My mother chose not to teach my sisters and brother and I how to cook or clean or iron clothes or sew. She would much rather do it herself, while voraciously reading 5 thick novels a week. Too much mess and too much bother and she felt perhaps that we would have time enough in life to do those homemaking tasks when we grew up.
When it was time to choose high school classes, of course she steered us to the college prep classes and not to the home economics or FTA~Future Teachers of America. No, we were driven eye and ear deep into History, World Literature, Economics and Government, Latin and Greek derivatives and French lessons.
I would go next door to my Grandma's house and sit on the yellow linoleum covered step stool by the sink and watch her cook, wash the Jadite bowls and cups and the Virginia rose patterned Homer Laughlin dishes. I would sometimes watch as she sewed a hem, darned a sock or crocheted a doily. Watched but never really put my hand to the domestic chores. Always the observer.
Well, it came time for me as a mommy to make a Brownie Scout vest for my daughter. I was so proud. I had borrowed an old funky sewing machine that my parents must have won as a prize through Readers Digest or something like that, and I sewed away as best I could while the bobbin unthreaded and the thread spool flipped off. I was frustrated but, Oh, it looked really nice. Couldn't believe how easy that was...zip, zip and it's all finished. I pinned the badges on and had my daughter try it on for my best friend Suzanne. "Mommy, I can't get my arm through the holes". "What? Why not?"
Suzanne looked at the little brown adorned vest. "Why, Kim, you've sewn the arm holes up!" Seam rippers are wonderful!
Not to be beaten though, I am after all a very creative person. I will make a lion costume for the play The Wizard of Oz my daughter was in.
Easy, peasy I thought. I had it all thought out. I will just get some tan fabric and I will have her lie down on it and I will cut around her and then sew up the front to the back. Then add fake fur and a tail. How hard can that be?.....uh...I resorted to a set of maize colored sweats and applied fake fur.
When ever there was a need for mending my children looked at me with a raised eyebrow. My children mended their own clothes and my husband ironed his own shirts.
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