I really didn’t intend to cut off anyone’s fingers last weekend – I just wanted to play home-ec teacher when I invited the granddaughters to learn how to use one or another of my three sewing machines.
They looked at me in total astonishment.
“I’m afraid I will cut off my finger,” one explained.
“That’s impossible!” I scoffed.
I coaxed and cajoled them and began setting up sewing machines, promising them that the needle would not, could not reach their fingers.
I don’t really NEED three sewing machines, but having an extra one comes in handy when one breaks down and needs to go to the repair shop – or when I have company in the sewing room.
Using my garage sale machines and stash of fabric from the recently opened Fabrics & More on Main Street, MNM Creations & Quilt Shop south of Parkers Chapel, the closing of the fabric store and fabric department at the big box store … and of course garage sales, I knew I had lots of options to offering them in sewing. I set up the spare machines and handed each a sheet of lined paper, took the thread out of the machines and told them to try to make the needle stay on the line.
Thrills of excitement followed as they experienced the power of the machine and the concentration needed.
“Oh, I’m so scared.”
“Push the pedal, it won’t hurt you. It’s fun.”
She did and then stopped every three inches to study her accomplishment with pride and ask, “Didn’t I do good!?”
“That’s wonderful. Keep on sewing.”
The youngest, not quite 10, loved it. She wanted to sew everything in sight.
I suggested they begin by hemming a couple of tablecloths. I had fabric for a Christmas tablecloth and a brilliantly colored party tablecloth with balloons, confetti and horns in six different colors – with enough left over for party napkins.
I showed them how to iron a temporary hem to sew in place. They took turns sewing the permanent hems.
I cut eight matching party napkins. The youngest did a Suzy Homemaker routine and sewed all the napkins’ hems while her older sisters wandered off to do something else.
The next day, they wanted to sew something else. I pulled out a pre-printed set of Christmas stockings. Four stockings, enough for one each and one for me to demonstrate the techniques needed. When we began cutting out their stockings, linings and stocking hangars, I discovered I need to buy left-hand shears – or one child will never be able to cut her own material.
Initial fears and hesitations gone, they raced to the sewing machines and fought over who got which one. Ten minutes later, I could not figure out why they could not stay on the half inch seam line – until I remembered when I began sewing as a child, I had pre-printed projects with the sewing lines stamped out for me to follow, as well as the trim and snip lines. We began marking sewing lines.
After one sewed the whole stocking together with the material offset a couple inches, I realized she had not pinned the fabric – she was afraid of being pricked. She took out all the stitching and began again – with the pieces pinned together.
Although I had lots of white fabric for lining the red Santa Claus stockings, one chose a polished pink cotton, another chose a violet print with cats and the third selected a bright red fabric to line her stocking.
They made a lot of mistakes in cutting and sewing – the worst we fixed. The rest I let ride – I wanted them to have fun sewing. We’ll refine the skills later.
Sewing the hangars for the stockings meant teaching them how to turn a tube of fabric inside out. I had forgotten the frustration of working material over a safety pin or around a pencil. But they each did what had to be done and we slid the liner inside the stocking, pinned all along the top edge, secured the hangar with a pin and then I hovered over each as they top-stitched everything securely in place.
We won’t need the Christmas stockings and tablecloths for a while, but we had a lot of fun and they had finished products to take home to show-off … and for once I needed all three of my machines at the same time.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at joanh@everybody.org.)