T-Shirts Are a Gateway Drug

The moment that you realize you can do something amazing like making yourself a piece of clothing is a heady one, indeed—at least it was for me. I think a young lady has also had that epiphany. My friend Cassie dropped her 11 year-old daughter off here yesterday morning and the two of us got to work. We went through my collection of patterns and chose one, then dove into my stash of fabric. This Pop! juvenile print from Joanns was just waiting to be turned into a darling T-shirt:

I demonstrated each step—everything from tracing the pattern to cutting it out to serging the seams—then had this young lady try it herself. She jumped in fearlessly. I found out that despite being in 4-H and having done some sewing, she had never used a rotary cutter. Their 4-H leader cuts out all their projects and threads their machines for them. I understand the need for such caution—no one wants a room full of little kids indiscriminately brandishing sharp objects—but I am of the opinion that young people are more capable than we think they are. I taught WS to use a rotary cutter a few years ago. He is making a quilt for his 4-H project this year.

The only sewing I did was to attach the neckband and hem the body and sleeves on the coverstitch machine. I turned the speed down on the serger so it wasn’t running away from her. When we were done, we took some of the leftover knit fabric and made a matching headband. I suggested that she think about making something to enter into the fair this summer and said that I would help her with it. Cassie has a serger.

[Cassie also has cows and is selling milk from them. I’m going to get a couple of gallons of milk next week and try making some cheese. I need another hobby like I need a hole in my head, but cheesemaking could be fun. We eat a lot of cheese here.]

That was a lovely way to spend a rainy Friday.

Just before dinner, a group of us met at the elementary school to load the leftovers from their plant sale into our vehicles to bring them back to my greenhouse. We’ve done this for a couple of years now. The school has a plant sale and donates what they don’t sell to the Homestead Foundation plant sale. We will have plenty of cucumbers and squash for this year’s sale.

Yesterday felt more like October than May. I am glad we moved the plant sale to June 1, although there is no guarantee of good weather that day. Still, the seedlings get an extra two weeks to grow.

I may need to run to town this morning for chicken feed, but I’ve earmarked the rest of the day for working on summer blouse patterns.