3 Failures and a Partial Success

I really don't know where I ever got the idea that I could sew. Seriously. It seems like disaster strikes nearly every time I purchase a piece of fabric with the intent of turning it into something. The only thing I have made and been completely satisfied with it, is an apron which was sewn under the supervision of one of my friends. So if you have ever received a sewn item from me, I really apologize. I think it's time I throw in the towel on this whole sewing business.  Let me explain.

My first failure of the weekend, was a nursing cover. My sister-in-law had asked me to make one for her a few months ago. It took her awhile to get the fabric to me, and by that time, I wasn't feeling up to sewing anything. Then she had her baby and I realized I really needed to get on the ball and make the dang cover. So I sat down one night, cut everything out and started ironing. It was then that I realized that the nursing cover was freakishly small. I don't know about you, but I like to be covered up when I'm nursing. I don't even know HOW I did it, but the main fabric for the cover was off by a matter of inches which makes a big difference. I was so mad at myself. So while I was trying to figure out how I messed up, Mateo decided it would be great fun to dump out all of my straight pins, and run around with my rotary cutter.

Then the tantrum started. Mine, not Mateo's. Let's blame it on the fact that I'm nine months pregnant because can only use that excuse for a couple more weeks. I was emotional and my children had pushed me past my limit. I had yelled at them numerous times to stay away from my sewing machine, to stop messing with my pins, to leave my fabric scissors alone- you get my drift. I was DONE. I started sobbing and realized that I needed to get away. I picked up the phone and called Manuel and asked him if we could go out if I found a babysitter. You see, since June he has been working 6 days a week, 12 hour shifts. I'm not sharing this for pity, I am sharing because I feel like it explains the tantrum. As much as I love my children, I just needed to be somewhere for an hour or two where I didn't have to say, "Stop touching your brother." "Don't touch that." "Eat your food because there are starving children that would love to eat it." So with a strange "of course we can" sort of tone Manuel said yes and I called my mom to see if she would watch the crazies for a few hours. I felt bad because they had just come home from youth conference, but I'm pretty sure she felt like she couldn't tell me no, mainly because I was still sobbing hysterically. I owe her big time!

So we went to dinner and then ran to Jo-Ann's so I could buy more fabric. Luckily they had some so after we picked up the kids I went home and started again. This time I made it bigger and it seemed to work out okay. I still haven't heard from my sister-in-law, so maybe she wasn't happy with it, but I hope she is.

The second failure is my carseat canopy. We had to buy a new carseat this time because our old one had expired. It's green and brown and I have this weird need for things to match. I found some fabric months ago that would go well with the carseat. It was an argyle print with a coordinating polka dot for the bottom. (Pictured above). I had cut and pinned everything, then as I was sewing it together I realized my mistake. I hadn't paid attention to the direction of the argyle when I purchased it at the fabric store. I should have bought more than I did because I needed the argyle print to be vertical on the canopy, and now it is horizontal. Such a lame mistake. I finished it anyway and now I don't even want to use it. All of that effort for nothing. Manuel thinks I'm crazy. I probably am.

 I accidentally mixed up the pictures, so the "partial success" will come before the third failure. This blanket is for our baby, and the zig zag stitch actually worked, so aside from it not always being a perfect stitch, it turned out better than anything else I made this weekend. The reason this is only a partial success is because I like my receiving blankets to be 1 1/4 yards. Receiving blankets from the store are a joke. There's never enough fabric to successfully swaddle a baby. Plus, the homemade 1 1/4 yard blankets make excellent toddler blankets when they're older. When I had found this fabric, there wasn't much left on the bolt. It was only a little over a yard and they didn't have anymore. I remember the girl at the cutting table thinking I was ridiculous for needing more than a yard for a receiving blankets because in her wise words, "babies are little." Wow.

The third failure is this monkey blanket. Another receiving blanket for our baby, and I totally messed it up. It's the decorative zig zag stitch. I don't know what was going on, but it looks horrendous. One side was doing some freaky non-zig zag thing, while the other side would be zig zag for a little while, then it would switch. I had already ripped the stitch out once and started over. It was working about half way through the blanket, then messed up again. I was SO frustrated. Now my poor baby has a dumb ugly blanket.

And there you have it. To me, these are all pretty good reasons to never approach a sewing machine again in my life. I'm totally jealous of my friends that can sew, because for some reason I am too dumb to grasp the concept.