Power of Suck

   Sometime last summer,  my toddler got a hold of a scissors, I got it away from her, but I didn't notice that she had already snipped her dress.   Not a huge deal, it was something I picked up second hand, but there was more room to grow.  So I decided, ok, fine, I'll  try my hand at mending it.

    I grew up in a household where my mom was a craft supply collector. I learned the basics of multiple crafts. Or at least the motions. I was never good at following patterns. It was way too much prep time. So I could sew, technically. Just never had a lot of practice.  Which means mending was not something we generally did.  Sure we had a pile of clothes that were Oh these could be fixed, put them in a pile in the sewing room.  They wouldn't really get touched.  That was more a matter of urgency I would say.  If my school uniform's hem needed to be let out, that got done pretty quickly. On the other hand, there's still fabric sitting in her sewing room for 2 sets of curtains for me.  Both for rooms I'm obviously not using anymore. 

    Going about mending a clean opening in a dress was a bit of a blank space for me. It wasn't frayed, but wasn't a seam. I figured the only way to find out was to try something and go for it.  I found an embroidery hoop and started go.  

    Some areas had more even and straighter stiches than others, and the color of thread matched well enough with the rest of the dress.  Sure it somehow made that part of the dress stiffer than the rest.  On the other hand, my daughter was able to wear it for the rest of the summer, and the hand stitches didn't end up coming out in the wash.  End of summer the dress got put away for the maybe one day she'll have a sister. 

It wasn't pretty, but it was a start and it got the job done.  This little task also reminded me, if I don't start out small and serviceable, I'm not going to get to anything bigger. And if not bigger, my serviceable won't get better without starting somewhere.