SEWing

What the what???

     So way back in 8th grade, I started sewing with my grandma. I made a few dresses and skirts and a shirt that I never wore because it looked dreadful. I enjoyed it, but mostly I enjoyed having the finished product. I stopped sewing for a while, after we worked on this shirt that was super annoying to make (still haven't finished it) but today I went over to my grandma's house and cut out the fabric for a dress pattern I'd gotten from my other grandma a while ago. We had bought the fabric last summer, and I was just now getting around to cutting it out. This is because I strongly dislike cutting out patterns. I have zero comprehension of how it's supposed to be laid out, so my grandma has to do that part for me, and then we pin it down and cut it out and then, if it all works out, we're able to cut the whole thing out and get started sewing it together. However, if it doesn't work out, like today, and we run out of fabric, then you're stuck. Luckily, Joann Fabrics still has the fabric that I bought last year in stock, so we're going to go get some more tomorrow.
     Anyway, what I had meant to say was that I don't particularly enjoy sewing. (Despite the fact that it's in my initials. I know. So coincidental.) For one, for whatever reason it is no longer cheaper to make your clothes instead of buying them, unless you buy the pattern on sale, use it multiple times, and get cheap fabric. Which is a hard combination. For two, it takes a lot of time. A dress probably takes 6-12 hours to make, depending on how elaborate it is. My grandma, in all her sewing expertise, made my mom's wedding dress, plus my mom's sisters' wedding dresses. They turned out beautifully, but I'm sure they took forever to make. Anyway, for three, I've yet to make any article of clothing without running into a single problem. I'm pretty sure that I've used the seam ripper on everything I've made. For four, sewing machines hate me and they will malfunction within the first half hour of me sitting down to sew and I'll have to call my grandma in to fix it. For five, even after I've spent all this time and effort to make this dress/skirt/shirt, it can still turn out horribly and there will be no way to fix it, so it has to go to Goodwill or the trash.

     However. Sewing is a useful thing to know how to do (I couldn't even hand  (provided it doesn't look like poo) and know that you've made it. Also, if you're like me and you like buying clothes from thrift stores, you can buy cheap clothes that are maybe not quite right and fix them up to make them wearable. 
sew before I made my first dress. Since then, I've mended quite a few things), and it's usually very gratifying because you can actually wear this thing you've made 

     Clearly, I have mixed feelings about sewing. I like that it's something I can do with my grandma and something she can teach me how to do (although mostly she just reads the instructions to me and I stare at her blankly and she translates them into normal speech for me. Ex: "Grandma, what is a nap?" Grandma: "It's like corderoy material, or anything that's raised." Great, thanks. Why couldn't they just write, "raised fabric"?). But I also think that in "modern society" making your own clothes is kind of impractical, because it's not cheaper than buying stuff, and it takes more time than just going to the store and buying it. BUT, it's still cool to know how to do it. So yeah. There you go. My two cents on sewing. 

Day 212 Song Recommendation: "Step Outside" by The Finches.

-SE Wagner