Thursday, October 18, 2007

Sew What? Oh, Pooh!

When my daughter left for college, we decided to place our youngest children together in that bedroom. These two children do not attend school, yet, so it seemed natural to put them together.


After my daughter "cleaned" her room and packed her stuff, I then tackled it and removed two full bags of trash. I also had to vaccumm and vacuum and vacuum. Since my youngest child is a boy, I decided that the lavendar walls with the cute stencil at the top needed to be repainted.


My baby had been given a Pooh Bear quilt when he was born. I matched the green color in the quilt for the paint and bought more Pooh material to make curtains. The painting was interesting since my younger kids all wanted to "help." (Now we have a room with green paint in unique places). Once I finished repainting all of the trim and window sills, we moved my son's crib and dresser into the room. We also set up a bed for my three-year-old daughter (who has since slept in said "big girl" bed instead of in our room and we're wondering why we didn't set up the bed a long time ago).


The kids both occupied the room without curtains for a few weeks while I worked on my manuscript. Since I turned in that manuscript on Monday, I figured it was time to make those curtains.


Now, I've sewn over the years. I didn't sew at all until I got married, but when my daughter (the one who's in college now) was born, I made all sorts of dresses. I continued to sew for my girls until I had so many kids pulling out the thread and readjusting my machine settings, I couldn't take it anymore.


I must say that I think my sewing machine is also alive (just like my computer) and it plots against me. One day, many years ago, my husband came home from work to find the sewing machine in the trashcan. Okay, so I get a little frustrated when I'm sewing.


Today I began the curtain project. And, after knocking the box of straight pins onto the floor at least three times spewing pins all over, poking my fingers a couple of times and drawing blood, fighting with said sewing machine as it tried to work against me, listening to my young son complain very loudly that I was sewing instead of holding him, saving a large remnant piece to make into a pillow only to discover I'd picked it up by mistake and sewn it into the curtain panel, sewing the part for the top rod into the bottom of the panel and having to take it all out and redo it, and having it take at least 45 times longer than I anticipated, I finally finished. Only to then discover my pants were on inside out.


Yes, it's been a day of . . . sewing. I am happy with the results and think the curtains make the room look even cuter. But, I have to admit, I'm really glad they're done and I can get back to something easier, like say, rocket science.

10 comments:

Marsha Ward said...

Thanks, Rebecca. I laughed out loud.

I own a sewing machine that I bought, oh, maybe a year ago, mostly to have on hand for mending purposes. It's still in the original, unopened box. Fiddle-dee-dee. Tomorrow is another day. I might open it then.

Nope, I won't. But maybe in a couple of weeks?

Stephanie Humphreys said...

Oh, that's funny. Even funnier for me because I sew for a living and I STILL have days like that.

Unknown said...

Oh, the pain of it. I only sew when I have to--and I had to a lot when the children were young--even made a baby jumpsuit out of my mother's cast off wool skirt. I still have a photo of that somewhere. But these days sewing is the pits. Much rather type.

G. Parker said...

Just think though...you can proudly say you sewed them, and now you have something you can stick in a book!! lol Good job!

Julie Wright said...

you sew AND finish manuscripts??? You are my new hero. Congratulations on both!

Marcia Mickelson said...

Hi, Rebecca. I tagged you over at the Ink Ladies blog.

Tristi Pinkston said...

I tried learning how to sew once . . .

Rebecca Talley said...

I can only handle sewing every once in a while because my sewing days are always like this!

Shellie said...

Oh how I can relate, but somehow it's funny when it's not happening to you! Glad you got it done and hope you didn't answer the door too many times that day.

Rick & Karen Mittan said...

It's so nice to find out someone else has the same motto I have - AS YE SEW, SO SHALL YE RIP!