It's not a bad thing - to have a Monday roll around after a really feel-good Sunday. Yesterday was a bit of an amazing experience for me. This photo is some fabric (and a baby toque and some all black sleepers!) that I bought a week or so ago with serious intentions. WHY AM I BUYING FABRIC? Well, here's a little story for Monday...
My mom is a sewing wizard. The Grand Dame of the Singer. Lady Sewer, if you will. She can sew anything. She has MANY sewing machines. She has had a few sewing businesses. All my life, I would dream up an outfit/dress/costume/idea/anything and she would sew it for me. A bathing suit - she would sew it for me. A jacket. Done. A complicated anything-I-wanted. Done. More than a few times she tried to teach me... but, it didn't take. It ended in tears. I'm a simple person. I understand the relationship and mechanical workings of a paintbrush. A sewing machine - NOT AT ALL. The SEWING MACHINE PEDAL??? OH. MY. GOD. I hate that thing. I promise you, I DO NOT DRIVE ERRATIC SPEEDS all over town in my Jeep. I don't. I don't zig-zag over lanes either. But, I can't seem to operate a sewing machine pedal. I never could. The last time I touched a sewing machine - was roughly 1989 (and that was probably just to toss something over top it for my mom to fix.
My friend Kerri (hi Kerri!) moved to Australia a few weeks ago. She will be gone for a year and let me babysit her sewing machine. (You are so brave!)
We couldn't find the instruction book at the time - but, I figured I would be able to download something that would teach me... and I would figure it out. Well, I couldn't find ANYTHING to download for this model. Nothing. So, I tried something new.
I accessed my memories... I literally closed my eyes and tried to recall every time I had ever seen my mom thread her machine - and since she would sit and sew practically every night... the memories flooded back. I could SEE her in my mind and I new what to do. It was so WEIRD! I FIGURED IT OUT. I figured it out by feel... and I was pretty proud of that. (For those of you shaking your head thinking - relax Kal it's just a sewing machine - it's not hard... like I said I am not mechanically inclined... anything more mechanical than a spoon is pure mystery to me. Serious.)
My stitches are still TOTALLY erratic and crooked and plain TERRIBLE. Dan laughed at me but, I don't care. I got it threaded and purring along! HOW COOL IS THAT? (I have a bit of a stitch issue on the BACK that comes from the bobbin - the thread is too loose and loopy - and sometimes gets tangled up... I tried tightening the screw in the bobbin holder a half turn... but, nothing changed... any ideas?) Although I am mortified - if you click to enlarge the photo - you will SEE the horrible stitches I was making... (BUT hey, this is my first project - I'll get better! Watch out Donna.). ;)
I used my sketchy-wonky sewing skills to sew up a cover for a PUTRID set of crib bumpers (I found on SALE!) for our up-coming new person. I've been scouting out baby stuff and I DON'T WANT LAMBS OR TEDDY BEARS OR koochy cheesy baby prints. NO FLOWERS. I don't want PINK or light blue or all of the other weird things out there. I don't want BROWN EITHER. I like simple. I like classic. I like black and white. I like grey. I wanted something wonderful that I could contribute to the VERY, VERY COOL CRIB that Dan is just about finished BUILDING with his bare super-talented hands FROM SCATCH. (oh, how cool is THAT?) So cool. It's amazing. It's beautiful. He's amazing. [Please do not leave me comments about crib bumper safety or your opinion about building baby furniture - we've researched and shopped and came to the conclusion that there are many ways to host a new-person... and this is ours.]
After some shopping and some stressing about all the stuff we needed (BY ME) Dan was pretty quick to remind me that we do things our own way. That's how we roll... This new person will not have a bassinet - I already have a perfectly sized laundry basket in my favourite colour that will do... This new person - will be perfectly fine in an antique rocker that doesn't glide (quite a few of us were rocked and we're still alive!). It's really amazing how much stuff the world wants you to think you need... I feel good about carving some paths of our own.
So that was the weekend. Concerts. Dinner parties. Sewing bee's. Discoveries... And a big reminder to just keep rollin' how we roll. It's working.
Today: I have to WORK. I have a list of things to get done and then I'm going to run errands and pick up some foam for another project. I might even paint a rocking chair. I'm definitely stopping off for a pedicure at TiberRiver... my achy feet and my nasty cold deserve it.
(Sorry for the super, super long post. I'm just really excited about those darn bumper pads. AND YES - that was KUB bread in the picture yesterday... you're good.)
Bring it on, Monday. Let's GO.