Sew Ready For Spring & Summer

As usual our Spring in SoCal is proving to be our crummy weather season. We had full blown summer all winter long but at soon as Spring hit things went a little wonky. But we still get Spring fever here, ready to school to get out, for the summer heat (that won't come until July or August and the extend through October), beach days and wearing bright, summer colors.

Monday night I made the very interesting decision to take the entire family to the fabric store. Anyone who sews has already done a face palm at this hair-brained idea. LOL. I needed to take The Bug with me so she could choose her fabrics for her new clothes and The Man wanted to get some craft supplies, so "Why not! The more the merrier!" That is until you're trying to make decisions about fabrics, look at patterns and locate all the needed notions. "Oooh, dawgie."

Three opinions in the fabric department were too many with hundreds of choices and the need to match more than one fabric that will go into one of the skirt patterns. I decided to give Daddy one choice as long as The Bug approved, then The Bug and I picked two others that she really liked. By this time things were beginning to swing out of control. They wandered off and a few minutes later I heard The Bug calling "Daaaad, Daaad," in that "I'm lost" voice that every mother can hear from a mile away. I quickly located her, still no sign of The Man but instead of staying with me she wanted to go find Dad.

Sigh. So finding him a few short seconds later I left again, only to begin hearing a loud ball bouncing and their voices from across the now mostly empty, very quiet fabric store. Head down, I ducked into the pattern section hoping to find a blouse pattern for myself. After quickly skimming three books, I found an easy sew pattern in the round racks that would work and then realized the didn't have my size. Gave up on that.

Went to the notions department where the clan joined me again to show me dozens of cool ribbons that had nothing to do with our current projects, to which I patiently replied again and again, "Yes, that is very nice," or "Oooh, I like that too." I finally found two fantastic silver trims that would work with our blue and silver metallic fabric, only to find at the cutting table minutes later that one of them was in sad shape and very clearly would not withstand a rough and tumble second grader.

Hiding so the other two, who were now very ready to go home, wouldn't see me I dashed back to the trim section only to be disappointed with a much lesser exciting choice but my only good option. By the time I got to the elastics aisle chaos had taken over, the still bouncing ball hitting the cart and rolling back and forth between the aisle sides. The Man was getting antsy to leave. I'll say he lasted about 30 minutes longer than I actually anticipated. Making a decision on which one-inch elastic to buy was now creating a major stupor of thought for me with the two of them spinning round me and talking.

My plan had originally included finding fabrics to make me a knit pencil skirt and a lovely, fun print to make an easy-breezy cotton summer skirt. I ended up scraping all attempts to make any decisions for myself amid the commotion as my anxiety increased and my decision making became more blurred. For some reason I bought myself a yard of dark chambray. I guess I'm making myself a simple skirt to start with....

But oh, didn't the new fabrics light up everyone's eyes. The best part about these three skirts we're making for The Bug is that I hope she's going to be sewing them. Yes, exciting. Last Christmas our dear friend asked if she and The Bug could do a secret project together. They got together for two nights, the first night they went fabric shopping and the second night they made pillowcases for our family for Christmas. With excellent help, The Bug did all the machine sewing. So she is ready for more sewing machine adventures and I think these will be perfect for her to start on with her excellent guide.

That leaves me more time to sew for myself. As hard as it's been to find clothes I get excited about in stores lately I am very interested in doing a little sewing. I can't find a skirt in any kid's store that goes anywhere near The Bug's knees being as tall as she is so making skirts is ideal and so easy for her too. Plus I love the all-out creativity you can have making your own clothes. You know you won't show up some place with all your friends in the same top or skirt and you can really put your personal style on things.

Hopefully I'll get my own sewing shopping adventure done sometime soon. I think I will need to go during the day while everyone is gone so that I have time to quietly sift through my options and make the best choices possible. I'm looking forward to it. It's a good time to be a seamstress in the Spring when the color palette in stores is overflowing with pretty, bright colors. Are you dreaming up some sewing projects this Spring? If you don't sew, is there something you wish you could make for yourself that you can never find just as you want it in stores?

image by kalanicut