The Next Generation
Posted in Crafting
Things I should have sewn during free time last week:
- A Tiramisu (I did finally trace the pattern pieces, at least.)
- A quilted bag for a class sample (I’m teaching(!) in May, but need to have the sample on display at the next quilt guild meeting.)
- A stuffed animal for a co-worker’s baby (I had the other two done by the time the dads came back to work. This one has been back for two weeks now…)
- Take down Christmas decorations (We haven’t even managed to bring the boxes back up from the basement.)
Things I actually did with my free time last week:
- Watched a lot of Doctor Who (couch lounging at its finest.)
- Scraped a lot of wallpaper from the walls of our spare bedroom (and filled up a huge box, plus a 30 gal. trash bag of scrapings—with plenty more still on the ground.)
- Messed around with free Embroidery software packages (rather unsuccessfully.)
- Taught my friend’s teenage daughter how to use her Christmas present (a.k.a. a sewing machine.)
The day was supposed to involve making PJ pants, but someone didn’t buy the right amount of fabric for the pattern when a gift of pattern, fabric, and notions was given (that would be me. doh.), so we cut out one leg, and realized we were short.
Never one to be stopped by so small a roadblock, Adele decided she wanted a stuffed elephant. We had plenty of fabric, but no pattern and limited notions. A bag was deemed “too simple.” I’m starting to think you shouldn’t put two of us “think outside the box despite little experience” people in the sewing room together (or dining room, as it were). Grand plans of indeterminable possibility may be hatched.
Undeterred, she drew an elephant outline, we played with various bits of paper to figure out floppy ears, and a stuffed elephant was made!
With the exception of one really problematic bit you can’t see because of the ear, caused by the ears and trying to sew a ¼″ seam with a lot of bulk right next to it, she did all the sewing. Not bad for the first time on her machine!
See, I’m now inspiring a new generation of sewists to come up with an off-the-cuff plan and find a way to make it work by some sort of fiddly magic as you go.
I don’t know if that is a good thing or bad. It seemed to work pretty well this time around.