Amazing Domestic Accomplishment

I am not a seamstress. Most likely I will never be a seamstress. I can use a sewing machine to sew paper into a mean little book, but for the most part, material really makes me queasy. My mother, on the other hand, is marvel with her sewing machine. Really. When I was growing up she made everything: dolls, almost all my clothes, bridesmaids dresses for other people, banners for church, and very impressive array of projects that she never even needed a pattern for. She tried to teach me to sew a few times, but I was hopeless. One time I sewed a pair of blue shorts for a 4-H project to take to the fair. I did very well with the project, but it was only because my mother told me exactly what to do every step of the way. I didn’t comprehend a single thing I was doing.

I didn’t ever take home ec in school. I would have actually had to take a bus to another school district to take it, and I was way too busy taking things like trigonometry and world literature. (Incidentally, I must admit that in my life I’ve probably used trigonometry as much as I’ve sewn, and I like math about as well as sewing . . . not much, but the mathmatical experience probably did assist me in getting scholarships for college).

When I was small, my mother would always spend FOREVER in the fabric store whenever we were on a shopping trip, stocking up on supplies since we lived far away from any fabric store. I’d wonder around the bolts of fabric and wait not so patiently for her to take me to a book store.

When I sew, thread tangles, material bunches, and I avoid using the iron at all cost even though I know I’m supposed to. I don’t have a clue even how to hem a pants leg or fix a hole in the knee of a pair of jeans. Really, I am telling you, I am truly hopeless.

But a few months ago I was reading a blog about a mom who sewed a superhero cape. There were great pictures of kids running around with superhero capes. I don’t even know what blog it was because it wasn’t one I usually read, and I didn’t really think too much about the superhero capes at the time. Over the last couple of weeks, though, I just kept picturing capes in my head, so I decided to use the internet and find out how to sew one, and last night I just decided I would. I cut apart a flat sheet I didn’t need and used a piece of Sesame Street material someone gave me years and years ago, and voila! A cape. The thread didn’t tangle. The material didn’t even bunch up. The cape is lopsided, but two-year-olds don’t care. All day long Mr. Perpetual Mess was busy jumping and flying like Super Grover, and Ms. Crazy Preschooler put on her fairy wings from last Halloween and joined in the ruckus.