The Young and the Restless

Why I Am So NOT a Sewer

My mom is an AMAZING seamstress. She can make anything from quilts to blessing dresses to bridesmaid dresses to purses to, well, pretty much anything she puts her mind to. Unfortunately that sewing gene fell a little too far off the tree when it came to me (I still make valiant attempts, all of which seem to fail. Like the throw pillows I made last year whose seams are all popping out now). I always thought it was neat how my mom made baby blankets for all 10 of her kids. I still have the one that she crotched for me, it is gorgeous (and that is why I almost had a heart attack last winter when Jason grabbed a stack of blankets out of the closet to cover the plants up during the frost and I woke up in the morning to find my baby blanket and wedding quilt, that my mom hand stitched also, draped all over the front lawn. Typical guy thing.) Anyways, so today I decided I wanted to make a baby blanket. This is where my first mistake starts. Instead of spending the time taking a sewing class, or perhaps at the very least just talk to someone who knows a thing or two about sewing blankets, I decide on a whim that today is the day for blanket making. I mean come on people, we're making a square here, all straight lines, how hard can it be? The second problem is that I'm not a perfectionist. Whereas Jason is quite the opposite, when it comes to projects he tends to go with my dad's motto: "Any job worth doing is a job worth doing well". I have my own motto: "It's good enough, now lets move on". So I drag Jayden to JoAnn's with me (with a nice piece of Power Ranger fleece that he found as his bribery to stay in the cart and stop pulling everything off the shelf) and lucked out to find some fabric I actually liked (with so many fabric choices there, why do I have the hardest time finding anything decent?) As I'm there I remember that most blankets have that satin binding and was glad that I atleast thought to get some of that. Of course I hadn't even thought about how much fabric I would need, let alone how much binding (who has time to take measurements before shopping?), so I ended up cutting off a big chunk of fabric when I got home so that I would have enough binding to go all around. (But try to give me some credit for atleast being resourceful, I used the extra pieces that I cut off and some ribbon I had laying around to make these cute burp cloths):So I get started as soon as I get home and am pretty confident that I'll be done in an hour tops. This is where the real fun begins. I didn't realize there is certain fabrics that are better for quilting (something I would have found out if I had taken the time to do some research) and the one I got is a little stretchy, so of course it keeps puckering up. I am not a patient person when it comes to pinning, I stick a couple in and call it good. Of course that means that my lines aren't straight and I end up picking out every stitch and starting over like atleast 10 times. Almost every time I start a sewing project, I always forget to get the right color of thread and once I get excited about a project I don't want to put it off until I can go back to the store for the right thread. This wasn't a problem since I sewed it inside out, until I got to that last little bit that I had to sew on the outside after flipping it right side out. Then there's the problem with the corners....in my mind I didn't think that it would be too hard to figure out. Apparently my mind was deceiving me. After many failed attempts I finally googled how to sew corners on the binding. Too bad I had already cut all the strips up and you're supposed to leave the binding in one whole piece and just fold it then sew. This is the result of my impatience (Mandy, you may want to close your eyes, I know how corners that don't match up affect you :): Finally about 6 hours later I finish my simple one hour sewing project (meanwhile my neglected children who have been watching tv for the past 3 hours are starving, the house is a wreck, and I have a half hour before Young Womens to get dinner and homework done. Once I start a project I can't stop until I finish). Now that it's finally done, I kind of like it (as long as you stand atleast 10 feet away when you look at it!) But next time I may just save myself the 6 hrs, spend a couple bucks more and just drive to the store and buy one. Although you never know, maybe one day my little man might just look at all the imperfections on his blanket (right before draping it on a plant to protect it from the frost) and think of the blood, sweat and tears that went into making it. Either that, or he may just realize that his mom is a sewing retard. (Man, I really wish my mom lived closer!)