Oh, For the Love of the Needle & Thread....

Two hours later & I am still sitting with a sick little baby. She is finally asleep, so I thought I would take some time to share my latest passion. I tried for 20 minutes to come up with a fun, inspiring way to tell the story of how I have loved creating & making things my whole life, but never got into sewing because I hate failing at things. All my attempts thus far have been LAME, so here it is in a nutshell:

I have always loved making stuff, but never got into sewing because I don't have the patience to follow patterns, iron, pin, blah, blah, blah....Well, something has changed in the last few weeks & I am now in LOVE with my sewing machine. I'd like to think it has something to do with my grandmas: angels sitting on each shoulder, guiding me & giving me patience. Both of my grandmas were always sewing, crocheting, or quilting something. My Grandma Dee gave all the grandgirls sewing machines for Christmas several years ago. I learned how to thread the needle, a bobbin, & that's about all I had the patience for. Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to learn, but I really don't like doing things if I can't do them well. When I first tried sewing, I could not sew a straight stitch to save my life (to be honest, I can't walk a straight line stone cold sober either), so the sewing machine sat in the basement, moved a few times, & finally landed in our laundry room. Last summer I decided to pull out the machine & make Karsen a dress for the 4th of July. Karsen & I went to JoAnn's to pick out fabric, a pattern, & all the goodies I would need. I worked very hard on her dress & K looked so cute in it! But, up close, that thing was a hot sewing mess. Uneven stitches, fraying seams, the neck wouldn't lay right, & I think I sewed the skirt to the bodice crooked. It was supposed to have a zipper, but that went out the window rather quickly. I ended up just sewing straight (HA!) up the back & tugging the damn thing over her head. It survived the washing machine, but barely. I  think this burst of attempted Vera Wang-ness was a result of all the extra hormones floating around; I was five months pregnant with Owynne. The sewing machine went back on the shelf in the laundry room until about two weeks ago. Since then I have made three dresses, two skirts, two fabric bows, & altered a onesie. Everything I have made is very simple, basically just pillowcases & tubes of fabric. But I made them; I made them with love for my girls....The little 4th of July dress is currently hanging in Karsen's closet, where I looked at it earlier today & decided I should pull it apart to fix it or make something different from its parts. But I think I will keep that dress the way it is: crooked, frayed, & made with love, just like me. 

****EDIT 5 minutes later: So much for the nutshell....****