Ides of January

On this auspicious day, all before 8 am:

• I didn't have to scrape my car windows despite the 18 degree outside temperature.
• A boy half my age called me "doll" and "darling."
• Ginny offered me first choice from a box of donuts (powdered chocolate cream filled).

I'm already dreaming about the afternoon. Maybe I'll:

• Win the lottery.
• Find out my house is built on a large vein of gold, oil, AND diamonds.
• Find that I've been chosen to test drive, with no cost involved, a Nook, Kindle, iPad, and Verizon 4G LTE USB.

Or maybe not.

It's in the Bag

Last night, the Relief Society met to make pillowcases/bags for children taken from their homes by CPS. The idea is that a homemade bag is a bit more comforting than a garbage bag when you're taken suddenly from your home and have to pack whatever you want to take in just a few minutes. Later, you can use the bag as a pillowcase.

This was part of an Eagle Scout project, and I was impressed by how many people were there. I took my sewing machine, and arrived about 30 minutes late, by which time most people were set up and working, usually two machines to a table with several people each cutting fabric.

I'm not sure how I expected things to work, but the cases were cut loosely to size, more or less straight, and in the middle of things they started pinning the tops to make a deep hem. No ironing. No measuring. No cutting board or rotary cutter. No regard to grain. (They did iron the finished pieces.)

I'd like to say I rolled with the punches and cranked out a bunch of cases.

Instead, I can say that I finished two pieces during the two hours I was there. I went back out to the car early on to get my rotary cutter and mat, and evened things up as best I could. I waited to use the one iron to get out the worst of the wrinkles. I did a bit of pinning. I'm not sure how comforted a child will be by an oddly-shaped brown or tan poly gabardine pillowcase, but so be it.

My two cases apparently passed quality control and made it to the finished pile. I took home two in-process cases and quite a bit of fabric (corduroy and a western-themed print cotton) to make a few more during the week.

Here's what I learned:

• Next time you volunteer for a sewing project, take your own iron and cutting tools, not just your machine. Take your own round head pins also.
• Try to set yourself up to work alone. Because I was late, I was able to do that last night. So, people might have wondered why I kept cutting on fabric that was already cut, and why it took me 40 minutes to finish one case, but at least they weren't wondering that while sitting right next to me.
• Attention to detail and demanding personal standards can be a drawback.

Actually, I knew that last bit already. However, as much as I don't always like that part of myself, I don't think I can do much to change it at this point.

More on a different kind of pillowcase next time.