When you have to get out the Petzl headlamp, you know things are not going smoothly. When you’re sewing with a police-issue-sized Maglite flashlight AND the Petzl headlamp, well, things have gotten ugly.
So tonight, four days before my baby girl’s 4th birthday, I am sewing (or attempting) a smocked sundress. You know the one that takes an hour to sew. And matching one for her dollies. Pink with white and yellow polka dots. She’ll love it. Except the elasticated smocking is not working. I got the dreaded thread nest on the wrong side, and the elastic snapped. I found two potential tutes on the web (thank YOU, Google) and posted for some help from the Sewing Mamas at sewingmamas.com.
So, tomorrow, I give it another go. But back to the headlamp and flashlight. I persuaded hubby to bring up his sailmaking machine (the one I know for sure needs a tune up we can’t afford to give it, with a broken tension disc spring and a penchant for iffy sewing. ) He has a side loaded bobbin, and I’m always tempted, with that adjustable bobbin case, to try my twin needles which don’t work on my drop-in bobbin Viking (except I read that they don’t work with side loaders). Anyway, I digress. My vision, corrected with contact lenses from 2009 (again, back to that thing about hubby unemployed, going on 8 months), is poor. I couldn’t see that needle hole for the life of me. Hubby assures me it was huge, but I couldn’t see it. Mine, I mainly know by feel where it is, I think.
The long and short of it is that sewing is often never as pretty a process as we’d like. I felt like I was on the edge of freaking out. But she will get a couple of store-bought gifts, and I will sew those dresses. Maybe even tomorrow, when I try those tutorials.
I will say this, at least I didn’t wait til the night before. Ho, no, I’m saving THAT one for the three layer cake with pink frosting and strawberry flowers. Yeah. I’ve never made a cake that wasn’t in a baking pan with the frosting only on top. So my friend Heather (H is for Heather at right) says that I should do a thin layer of frosting first, the ‘crumb’ layer before the final coat. I’m worried I won’t get them out of the pan! I wasn’t even thinking of problems with frosting them. Hubby asks why I’m frantic about baking and shopping on Saturday. I say because if I mess up the cake, a dairy free cake, then I have only one bakery I can get one at and they are not open on Sunday!
So, that’s where I am. Petzl headlamp and Maglite next to Ghinger shears.