Saturday, August 15, 2009

Learning to. . . wait.

I decided a few days ago that I wanted to try sewing again. My last attempt was somewhat less than successful.  The apron I made as a Christmas present for my grandmother ended up being so large that it would have fit three of her.  (What's that phrase going around right now? Oh yeah. "Epic Fail.")  

Yesterday evening, I thought it would be fun to work on another apron while watching movies with my mother and brother.  We had picked out an old-fashioned half-apron pattern a while back and I had some sweet, equally old-fashioned fabric just waiting for me to get up the courage to make a second (or third, or fourth... I've lost count) attempt.  The pattern-pinning and fabric-cutting part went very well and I now have a nice, orderly little pile of apron parts waiting to be assembled.  That's splendid.  Now I just have to figure out what the heck the pattern is trying to tell me to do with them.  The packaging says "easy," but in this case, I believe they mean "easy if you have someone to translate seamstress-speak." (Jenny? Anna? Someone?) 

Even if I could read the instructions I would need to wait to put everything together.  Somehow, when we got the fabric, we failed to get the necessary finishing touches: bias tape and some sort of ruffly trim stuff.  For now, I just have another unfinished project (like my  paintings and my quilt and my scrapbooks, and my and my embroidery. . . .)

4 comments:

Jane said...

In all fairness to us, they didn't have the right size bias tape and the lace was all ugly. We intended to get some elsewhere, and now we will. :)

Adriane said...

Oh, good! I thought I was the only one who finds patterns incredibly difficult to follow . . .

Elephantschild said...

Many patterns have retarded instructions that are hard to follow.

Don't feel badly if the instructions don't make sense. It's not your fault.

If you give me the pattern number so I can look at a picture online, I can probably help you over the phone. Either that, or I can give a crash course in apron-finishment when I visit next time!

Word to decode: "Trout" Hmmmm.... are you sure Blogger doesn't live at your house?

Emily said...

I would love to come over and translate pattern-ese! I quickly learned how to decode and then disregard patterns. Or take good instructions for one pattern and change all the steps on another one. Like bias tape, it can be made from the same fabric and used in all kinds of handy places.

I really just love reading complicated directions and ordering other people about. =)