stitch

in 7th grade or maybe it was 8th, who knows, i was forced with the rest of my class to take 6 weeks periods of electives. these electives included "shop", "technology", "home economics" and some other stuff that i can't remember.

i'm not sure what the point of many of these classes were other than to put us in danger (can you imagine a 12 year old me using a jigsaw?)or bore us to tears. the classes were really more of entertainment than education.

as domestic as i am now i really found home economics to be the most difficult. the year i took it we had to sew pillows. i chose a chocolate chip cookie pattern as it seemed the least complicated. i even somehow convinced my teacher that i hated nuts in my real cookies and didn't want to see them reflected on my pillow to get out of more sewing.

this pillow was probably the most challenging thing i faced throughout my k-12 education...i had a hard time with chemistry my sophomore year but, in all honesty i'd have to say that using a sewing machine was far more confusing to me than ions, compounds and elements.

as with all things i don't immediately excel at, i found sewing stupid. so stupid and below me that i persuaded one of my guy friends (who had already finished his baseball bat pillow) to sit on the opposite side of my machine and actually sew it backwards. in the end he actually did a pretty good job.

i don't believe my lack of sewing skills has hindered my life too much...until now. now i have an amazing opportunity to see the world and what i think is an incredible idea for a children's book series...all of which hinges on a character that needs to be made...which includes not only creating this little guy but actually sewing him together.

so far i've made one and he was a disaster. considering i had to make my own pattern i'm not yet too frustrated about needing to make adjustments. but, if this next one doesn't look much better i'm afraid my 7th grade self will emerge and this idea will be over before it even really began.