IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED, WALK AWAY

Bless my heart! I always said the Lord keeps me humble when I sew. Even though I haven’t sewn for a while, I think it is truer now than it was back in the day.

I had made my son-in-law, Jeremy, a royal blue pirate shirt for the last Disney cruise. I wanted to make Dylan, his son, a matching one for the upcoming cruise. I made Jeremy’s from a satiny material and wanted to get a more forgiving material for little man’s shirt due to his drooling from cutting teeth. There would also be very noticeable stains from him spitting out food he doesn’t like down his front. I found the perfect matching color in a knit.

Mercy! I should have gone with cotton knit! This slimy stuff would make a preacher cuss! Personally, my mind was too cluttered trying to remember how to sew to think of naughty words … Almost.

If any of you have sewn, you know the importance of the pattern being on the straight of the grain. (I’m sure there is a spiritual application there somewhere! That’ll be a blog for another day.) Like many fabrics, when the bolt is rolled onto the cardboard, the selvages shift. That results in a torqued material and when the person at the store cuts it, the straight of the grain is off. Now that probably doesn’t mean anything to the non-sewer, but to me it was #1 pain in the backside.

The solution is to try to match the selvages until the fold at the center of the fabric hangs straight. Normally that is an easy fix. Not so much with slinky material, but I finally got it laid out on the table.

I commenced to pinning the slithering material. Here’s some knowledge that has been a lifesaver I learned from my mother-in-law. She taught me this back in the day of cloth diapers. If a pin won’t go through fabric, run the pin through your hair. The oil will make the pin go smoothly into the cloth.

Sometimes my bunny trails are quite useless. As I reread that one, it is truly a word of wisdom. Or so say I!

Back to the material. After trying pin after pin, I finally got the pattern ready for marking with tracing paper. Since most of my sewing stuff has been stowed away for nearly two years, it took a while to find the supplies. But I got ‘er done!

Next was trying to find the new rotary cutter blades I had purchased when I fell in at Hobby Lobby. (‘Falling in’ is a malady that means buying too much and everything keeps falling into your basket.) I finally found them and the cutter, got those suckers cut out, and began to sew.

Today I remembered how to make a bobbin, which was good. I remembered to test the stitches on a cloth. So far so good. Everything past that was downhill all the way.

I started by sewing the front facing to the front of the shirt … except I forgot I needed to attach the collar first. Out comes the ripper.

Next was the collar. The first curve of the Peter Pan collar got crinkled and the material jammed down into the machine plate. Between jerking the material from the plate and the ripper’s energetic prodding, the collar ended up with a big hole. Back to the drawing board rather, the cutting table.

I cut two more pieces and successfully joined the pieces. Feeling proud of myself, I moved on.

The next two connections could have been done by a blind tailor, but I couldn’t handle it! One shoulder was done with only one small crinkle that was easy to remove. The next seam jammed almost immediately. I knew it was time to call it a day.

There are some things one learns on her quick trip to old age. When there are more than three things in a row that go wrong while sewing, get up and walk away. Her patience bottle gets a refill every morning. I hope.

The Bible says God’s mercies are new every morning. I pray He has mercy on me and helps me with my troubles. Psalm 102 paraphrased (very loosely) says, “Lord, hear my prayer and listen to my plea! Help me in my distress! Please help me quickly for my patience is at an end and disappears like smoke!” Or something like that.

I know He cares for the things – big or small – that concern us.

“Cast all your cares on God, for He cares for you.”

I do too. Be blessed today.

        KB