Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
While wading through the requirements for my Sew Wonderful badge, I got a little stuck. Well, more than a little stuck. It had to do with the sewing machine.
The sewing machine.
It had been sitting on my kitchen table all week, mocking me. It was intimidating. It was my Grandma Barbie’s, and I’m pretty sure the last thing it stitched were some bell-bottoms back in the day.
I sent up a little prayer of thanksgiving to Grandma Barbie (which I guess is a tad weird because she isn’t in Heaven, she’s in Florida in a posh retirement home) for keeping the owner’s manual all this time. I sipped a cup of chai tea while I skimmed through the “re-historic” document. I felt like I should be wearing gloves while handling it, it seemed so old. And the directions looked like French to me.
Actually, they WERE French. (The wrong side was in English.) Fabric has a wrong and right side too, but I’m saving that challenge for another day. I decided to tackle the threading of the machine and was pleasantly surprised to find I have a real knack for it. The closest thing I can describe it to is highlighting hair—getting all those strands exactly right.
The only problem I ran into was my dang Pomeranian, who kept sitting on the foot pedal thingy. She thought it was real funny to start up the machine when I least expected it. I’m so totally making her a pink dress. Who’ll be laughing then, Ms. Twinkles?
Trying to sew a straight seam was a real vexation. Mine ended up a little wavy gravy. I’m just glad I have plastic nails—they came in pretty handy when all the fabric bunched up under that bobbin thingamabobby.
I felt real old-fashioned-like when it came time to sew a seam by hand. It took me forever to thread the needle, but once I did, I plopped my feet up on the footstool and really enjoyed myself.
Sewing! Who would have thought!? Me? I must have poked myself a dozen times, and when I accidently knotted my thread and had to start over, I may have cried a little … but all in all, I was darn successful, girls! And I even figured out what a thimble is for …
After a long day of crafting, it makes an excellent cocktail glass. Bloody Mary, anyone?
