None dare call it sewing

Reading crafty-mommy blogs puts me in the mood to sew, although the truth is I am the sloppiest shortcut-taker at the sewing machine that any home ec teacher’s nightmare ever was. So the other day, because it was my birthday, I dragged out my cheap-o sewing machine and began making a little pair of drawstring corduroy shorts with patch pockets out of the old sheet that was the lining to that bag. Lucky for me, my older sister and mother both paid me a visit as I was working. Both are skilled seamstresses, both strict perfectionists in their work. So with absolutely no effort whatsoever I was able to annoy the heck out of them , whether it was laying butter knives on the pattern pieces to keep them from shifting as I cut into the fabric, having the nap go the wrong way on one side (really you can hardly tell), pinning it wrong, or worse yet, not pinning at all! Oh the shame! I finally politely reminded them that it was my birthday and I could sew the wrong way if I wanted to. Which I did. Paired with my son’s favorite ratty old hand-me-down tie dye, I thought these very wrong shorts could have turned out worse (or maybe they just look good compared with the shirt…)

Frankly, it doesn’t matter, because my little boy loves them and all the other kids want a pair just like them too. So there!

Speaking of hand-me-downs, in the past two weeks a couple very generous people have given me enough used clothing to outfit a small African village:

Please don’t get me wrong, I love second hand clothes and so do my kids, but this just looks a bit daunting, does it not? My task tomorrow is to inspect every article and weigh whether it might fit, whether it is in good enough shape, whether the appropriate child will deign to wear it, whether my husband will lose his job and we become homeless and live in Siberia and the only thing shielding us from certain death by exposure on a snowy Siberian park bench could be this faded sweatshirt from Knott’s Berry Farm where none of us have ever even been… I think I might need some chocolate to get me through this job.