1950`s Challenge Day 10 - Sewing an apron

 I can not sew, I have not creative talent in my body at all!!

I was good at sports and represented the state in numerous sports, but now thanks to MS I cannot do any of the sports I once loved.

So I am now trying new activities!!

We brought a pottery wheel because I thought it would help my hands and I like the idea of being able to use it. Well I tried it a few times and now it takes pride of place in our shed.

I thought about tapestry, went out and brought a lovely country design with all the wool etc that I needed, tried it and found it difficult to hold the needle!

Next was knitting. I brought a pattern book which has some gorgeous items to make, I started a scarf and again found it to hard to hold the knitting needles!!!

I then said to Lord Huntingdon I wanted a sewing machine, his response was "will it be like the pottery wheel etc..."

To cut a long story short 2 days later I had a sewing machine, complete with patterns, material, odds and bobs etc to  make something. But what?

Well today I made something which I thought would be a little easier than the plastic bag holder I made a little while back.

I made a half apron as all 1950`s housewives had at least 1.

It wasn't too bad considering I forgot how to thread the machine!

This was fixed after about 1 hour of cursing at it, calming down with a coffee and trying again and again....

I had drawn a picture of what I wanted to achieve and then I tried to get it straight in my head, such as what I needed to sew first etc..

I was going really well and feeling like I was getting somewhere when I realised that I had sewn the opening to the pockets up side down!!

It was then that I got to know all about the quick - un - pick.

Although I have no idea why they call it that as I didn't find it quick at all!!!

I then sat down and pinned where the pockets should go and up the right way, you see I didn't do that step earlier as I thought pinning was a waste of time!!

Clearly unpinning is more of a waste of time so now I have learnt to pin!!!

Here is my finished apron, feel free to point out what to do and what not to do but don't be too hard!!

I appreciate the feedback as I would like to learn more!!

My sewing attempt as promised.

I had good intentions as always, but when it came down to sitting down in front of the sewing machine fear took over! Yes FEAR!!!

Where do I start, what do I make? And the thing that scares me  the most FAILURE!!

I put off my attempt for the whole day as I could not picture what to make, I had told my daughter that I wanted to make a bag to but my plastic bags into, you know the kind you get from the supermarket.

Well she came to my rescue this morning. I think she could tell how disappointed I was that I had not yet made anything so she told me how to make one over the phone. Knowing me as she does she said "you don`t understand what I a trying to explain to you do you?" And with that she said that she would whip one up in about 10 minutes and take photos along the way with a written description, which she would then send  me.

I got the sewing machine out and set it up in anticipation. The message came through and off to work I went. Her finished product looked so good I had high expectations of what I could achieve considering it was only a cylinder shape which she managed to put together in about 10 minutes.

I picked out the material I wanted to use and gathered the supplies I thought I would need along with setting up the ironing board as I wanted my attempt to be neat and I had heard that ironing helps to achieve a tidy look.

I put my phone on the desk next to the sewing machine with the email up so I could follow it step by step.

I started at step 1 and read through the instructions not missing or leaving out anything.

I folded here and there and ironed them flat. I was told to pin here and there but thought I would miss that step as I had ironed a crease in so why use pins, as I was only going to remove them after sewing anyway.

I stitched the casing for the elastic in place and to my horror I realised that I had stitched where I was going to put the elastic in.

My disappointment was evident to my daughter when she received my call to ask how do I fix this?

"What already, didn`t you follow the instructions and the photos?" she said.

"Well I thought that step could be missed" was my reply in explaining to her.

She said she would call be back in a few minutes to explain how to fix the problem.

It was quiet obvious to me now that I should not try to take shortcuts as I just stuff things up in doing so!!

While I was waiting for my daughter to call back Lord of Huntingdon come in from cutting firewood to find me in front of the sewing machine trying to work around the mess I had made.

Being the man he is he immediately jumped into my chair to fix my stuff up. He explained this and that and unpicked this and that. He thought at this stage that it would be easier to start from scratch to show me as I learn by doing not reading instructions.

He cut out his material and folded here and there and stitched here and there and before I knew it he had achieved a bag to hang the plastic bags in.

Not wanting to give in as I am afraid of failure as I said before I cut out another piece of material and proceeded to fold here and there and to stitch here and  there and in a relatively short period of time I had made my very own bag.

It may not be perfect to the seamstress or as decorative as my daughters but I am proud of it all the same.

It only took me the whole afternoon to stress out, stuff up and finally achieve.

Now as I have said before I have Multiple Sclerosis and I once was as sharp as a tack I now have trouble concentrating and focusing on the task at hand but I am going to try  sewing something new tomorrow, I will let you know how I go and if you have any simple projects for beginners let me know and I will attempt them.