Sewing

My mother was an amazing seamstress. She sewed my oldest sister Melissa's wedding dress, many of our prom dresses and of course many of the Sunday and Easter dresses we had when we were little girls. Here are a few examples:

Don't you love our happy faces?

She felt it was important to teach her daughters to sew, so when we were young, we learned. I was probably the worst student as I would get so frustrated trying to figure out what the sewing pattern was saying. I'd come crying and whining to my mom every five minutes for help. I attempted to sew several things, mostly dresses, during this experience and I think I may have actually been able to wear only one of them. I was not a happy sewer.

So you may find it kind of ironic that I actually asked for a sewing machine for Christmas.
I reasoned with myself that I just wanted to sew mainly crafty things, projects that don't involve complicated sewing patterns.

But of course one of the first thing I did was buy several patterns on sale and attempt clothing.

I first made a skirt for myself. No picture, because I only wore it once and wasn't terribly pleased with it.

The second project was a dress for Miriam.
This turned out better than the first project, but don't look too closely at the dress, or you'll see the mistakes.





My sister Jody is an excellent seamstress as well, and she helped me interpret the patterns, but some of the actual sewing skills will only improve with more practice.

I'm glad that I can say that I made my daughter something, but I don't know how often I'll sew clothes anymore. Unless you can get the fabric on clearance, it usually is more expensive to sew clothing versus just buying it already made.

So I will be on the look for simpler projects, maybe some pillows or curtains or something. Hopefully my mom would be proud that I at least tried again, and that I am still using the basic skills she taught me.