Boogers on the Wall

I don’t know why I think I can sew but every once in a while I get a wild hare and decide to tackle another sewing project.

What was it this time? A skirt for me to wear at my brother’s wedding.

I must have been feeling overly confident because I recently sewed some burp cloths that turned out pretty cute. But then again how hard is it to sew a square spit rag? The burp cloths were nothing compared to the skirt.

In my defense I didn’t think of sewing the skirt a week before my little brother’s big day as a first resort. One of my best friends and I went to several stores skirt shopping and had no success.

Nothing stood out to me and I didn’t want to spend $40 or more on something I thought was mediocre. Not to mention the fact that being a little over a month post-partum I hope to lose a few more pounds of my baby weight. (Note I said, “hope.” We will see what really happens.)

I didn’t want to drop some serious cash on a skirt that might not fit in December.

So the day after my skirt-shopping failure, I packed up my boys and made a trip to JoAnns.

I don’t know what other young boys think of that craft superstore, but my boys hate it. They were out of control the second we stepped foot in the door.

I rushed through the store searching for something to match my brother’s wedding colors as my boys swung from the cart and chased each other around. I finally settled on a green-patterned print and hurried to get it cut.

But I thought I was going to scream at the cutting counter. One of my sons decided to play dead in the middle of the aisle by lying sprawled out on the floor. That’s when the other one decided to pounce on him like he really was dead meat. All the while the young employee cutting my fabric just chuckled under her breath.

I didn’t think it was funny. I grabbed one of them by the arm and he started screaming out that I was hurting him. After half the store had turned their angry eyes on me – the parent that was beating up on her child – I called his bluff and made him admit that he wasn’t hurting at all. That’s when he started laughing and ran off again to chase his brother.

By the time we made it to the checkout line I was ready to cry.

My oldest two boys did end up crying – one hit his head on a metal shelf while trying to (once again) run away from me, the other bonked his forehead on the credit card swiping machine while trying to hang onto the counter like an upside-down acrobat.

I didn’t want to say it while we were in the store, but in my mind I was thinking it served both of them right.

I cut my fabric out later that night and was itching to start sewing but ran out of time. The next day I started bright and early stitching my skirt together.

I think I let my boys watch more TV that day than they have in a long time. As long as they were being good while I was working with my sewing machine, I didn’t really care.

The sewing actually went really well until I went to try the skirt on. I didn’t really know what size to make, but obviously I estimated wrong. I couldn’t cinch up the side. Unless I sucked in all of my air and didn’t breathe all day, that skirt wasn’t going to fit for the wedding.

Luckily I had some extra fabric. I sewed a couple extra inches into the edge of the waistband and readjusted the gather at the top of the skirt. At this point I almost felt like giving up. I had already gathered the top several times after my gathering string kept breaking. (I know one of my friends told me recently about a gathering trick using dental floss, but I couldn’t remember that in the heat of the moment.)

But the couple inches in the back was just what I needed in order to make myself squeeze in comfortably. A few hours and a lot of finishing work later and the skirt was finally done.

It turned out better than I thought it would and was super comfortable. It might not fit everyone’s style but it was perfect for me. (Even if my husband said it looked like I was ready to go to a sock hop in it.)

The wedding breakfast, ceremony and reception were amazing and even though it seemed so stressful getting my skirt together, it was so nice to have something I felt good in. Luckily it was all worth it.