A Sewing Day

Margaret thinks they are cozy!

It’s been a while since I chatted with you, Dear Reader, but I feel like I have been sooooo busy!  Doing what? Mostly procrastinating, I fear.  And I have had a lot to procrastinate about.  Before Christmas, I took Becca to the fabric store where she was buying material to make pajamas as a gift for Rachael.  She encouraged my to buy material to make myself a pair so that we could have sewing communion, but I demurred.  Too time-taking, and then not any money saved by making your own.  There was, however, some nice flannel which appealed to me.  It had cute little sock monkeys all over it. I am very fond of sock monkeys.  But not worth the trouble. Pajamas are a lot of work to sew, and as I said, making your own does not save any money.  A day or so later, I realized that my pajama wardrobe was getting slim.  Actually, I had realized this for quite a while, but was in a state of denial. But the truth could no longer be denied.  My aunt, after a shoulder injury, recently went from being a nightgown girl to being a pajama girl when her nighties were too difficult to get on.   So naturally, I gave her a pair of mine.  Three other favorite pairs are seriously aging, and will very soon end their days.  In fact two of them should have been put to rest long ago, but I keep wearing the tatters.  Do you think this inspired me to get the sock monkey material?  Not at all.  I had purchased a pair PJ’s as Christmas gift for both my aunt and Becca from the Vermont Country Store.  Did I get myself a pair at the same time?  No.  Too expensive.  Shortly thereafter, I realized how foolish I had been, especially when I saw how nice my aunt’s new PJ’S were.  The flannel was fluffy and thick – thicker even that the sock monkey material, and the pockets were just where I like them – at the waist, instead of breast.  Alas, the free postage period was over. So even more expensive! Well, LLBean always has great pajamas and free postage, so Rebecca and I looked at what they had to offer.  Not much!  Once again, I had waited too long, and all the ones I liked were already sold out.  Sigh!

You would think that after all my enthusiasm for sewing, as demonstrated in the two previous posts, I would be anxious to take up my needle, but as demonstrated in this post, I had really not come to grips with my new sewing machine, and still viewed it as the enemy.  Rebecca needed to go to the material store again, so I took her, and once again, the sock monkeys sang their siren song to me.  This time I capitulated.  Then I fretted and thought up all kinds of reasons not to start sewing.  I couldn’t get my material nicely folded after pre-washing it.  It was too cold in my sewing room.  I was too busy.  Finally, in despair, on the day I had promised myself to start sewing, I decided that the leaves which had been languishing in my yard since November, simply had to be raked up that day.  That shows the depth of my desperation – preferring to rake leaves in frigid weather than to get busy on the task at hand. Well, I am happy to say, that once the leaves were raked, I finally started.  I knew that once I got going, I would not stop until the PJ’s were done.  Now I sit here typing in my new nighttime outfit, and am planning the next pair.  They will be red flannel.  Another happy note – my sewing machine and I have more or less made friends.  The button hole feature is sadly lacking, but otherwise, we are getting on well.  So I won’t have to work quite so hard at putting off starting the next pair.