Sewing With Help

I've been working on a 'swap project', and I'm having so much fun! Rhonda over at Down To Earth is hosting, and it's the first time I've ever done this. I love Rhonda's blog, and her attitude. She reminds me of my mom, that is, if my mom weren't so anti-social. My mom is a total introvert, in the classic sense. If you've seen how loud she can get after a bottle of red, you'll think I'm crazy, but she's an introvert in the way that she really needs almost no interaction with people. She is mostly happy to be alone, or with the few people she truly cares about, and needs very little human input ~ she truly does not care if you like her, understand her, or agree with her. She's not what one would call a "people pleaser", or if she is, she's very, very bad at it. hahaha

Anyway, Rhonda is very extroverted in the sense that she naturally sort of reaches out, builds community, and shares. My mom does lots of things without talking about any of them, so I find myself learning the details behind many of the things my mom has always done, just from Rhonda instead of my mom.

I don't want to show too much of the projects just yet, as I don't know if Pippa will be reading this before the package makes it's way over to the UK, and I don't want to spoil the surprise.







It's a mix of things I do very well ~ like crochet ~ and things I am learning to be very good at ~ like embroidery. I've done enough embroidery in the past few months that I now think more about craftsmanship than just trying to finish it, but the funky ends or knotted threads on the final product never did bother me.




There was also quite a bit of sewing, which I don't do very well. And which I am not very good at. So what you're left with is, something I'm beginning to learn. As a frame of reference, one of the "big things" I'm working on in my sewing is "keeping a straight line" when I'm simply running a hem through the machine. Oh boy.

But like I already told [read: warned] Pippa: When it comes to 'homemade', the love is in the mistakes! Luckily, she agreed!

Scotty wanted to help me with one of the sewing bits. At first I just tried to keep him busy putting straight pins into a tomato cushion, but he's no fool, and he quickly recognized that the machine is where all the real action is. So he "helped" me make a bobbin (the unthreaded needle, racing to nowhere while the bobbin was winding, first concerned and then fascinated him).




Then he "helped" me with a simple hem.









It's good for me to let him work with me, because his wonky seams are so charming to me! It helps me to find charm in my own, tentative attempts to learn something new. I mean, I know he's three, and so you wouldn't expect him to have a perfect seam, but honestly, I'm not unlike a three-year-old when it comes to sewing experience!