Saturday, March 17, 2007

Sew Not Cut Out For It

When I was a young 'un I always looked forward to going back to school shopping. A new lunch box, a few new shirts and fresh pencils just waiting to be sharpened and I was ready to go. Lord-a-mercy, I wish it were that easy now.

Bailey will start pre-school on April 10, but before that a monumental task awaits. The kind that involves Thomas and Friends fabric and straight pins and elastic and scissors. The kind of thing that I am absolutely, positively NO GOOD at doing.

"How bad?" you might ask. Let's see if these will answer your question.
  1. In junior high, I took a home economics class. The last three or so weeks of school were devoted to sewing. We were supposed to sew and stuff pillows in the shape of letters that spelled out our name or initials or whatever. Six letters in my name. I should have been able to manage that. At the end of three weeks I only had a very lopsided T to show for all my effort.
  2. My sisters and I used to use material scraps to make dresses for our Barbie dolls. If I couldn't get the dress to fit just right I would pin it..... to the Barbie doll. In another tragic turn of events I once amputated a Barbie foot. I was trying to shorten a skirt and ended up shortening Barbie's foot as well.
  3. Frustrated and tired I once begged my sister to work the pedal of the sewing machine while I guided the fabric through and did some kind of presser foot magic. Did I ever mention I am not a multi-tasker????

That is how bad I am. That is why I still haven't finished the cross stitch blanket that I started for Bailey when I first found out I was pregnant with him. That it why at Bailey's last field day the name tag that I had sewed to his shirt was hanging on by a thread before the introductions were even finished. That is why I am paying someone else to make all the bags that Bailey needs for pre-school.

Why not just buy them? Because they have to be a certain size and I am having trouble finding the sizes that he needs. And the sheer quantity, the amount of things needed would make even the most experienced sewer have to re-group. Three bags for shoes (one for street shoes, one for his indoor shoes and one for his playground shoes), a bag for his milk cup, a bag to put a change of clothes in, a bag for his play pants (the pants also have to be handmade), a lesson bag, a bag for his lunch box, a couple of bibs and place mats and I am sure there is something else I am forgetting.

I am paying an arm and a leg to have someone else make them for me. I am paying an arm and a leg because I am sew not cut out for it.

6 comments:

Jerri Ann said...

Trisha, that sounds ridiculous to me. My boys go to preschool (which I am about to buy) and they don't care if things come in a paper sack or a walmart bag. Of course since my mom is a seamstress, they have all the highly fashionable bags, thomas the train, dora the explorer and blankets to match but honestly, that seems a bit over the top to me...is it just me or do you not think so too?

I'm whoring my new site too btw. It is www.lifeinreality.com along with my old site www.acracknlife.squarespace.com I'm using the sites to write ads and hopefully make a little cash to hold me off until I can buy this daycare. If you would link to them in a post or put them in your blogroll, I'd be forever grateful and would even lick your face...

coarse gold girl said...

"I am sew not cut out for it."
oooooohhhh. Now I have an all time favorite quote for the pre-school mum like me in Japan!

We had just moved here in April, and DD#2 started youchien in May. I met most of my neighbors in this simple way,"Excuse me, where can I go to pay someone to sew all this stuff for me?" (while waving the papers with all the detailed dimensions and lengths and widths and whatevers written on them).

I ended up happily forking over a fortune at the local Jusco.

Of course, everything was in Pretty Cure fabric and now (WHY?) they have gone and changed the anime to Pretty Cure 5. DD#2 has already hinted that her bags are missing certain characters. . . sigh.

Anonymous said...

heheh you are too cute! I adore sewing and creating things from nothing, but totally am aware that it is not for everyone :)

Midori said...

I SO (SEW?:-))) know where you are coming from!!! I am terrible at sewing as well so have already told my MIL that she will be making the bags if Joey goes to youchien here! If she can`t, then I too will be paying someone to do it!

Vicky said...

Ha! What REALLY pisses me off is the implication (or sometimes downright statement) that this will show how much you love your child! All the dimensions are deliberately off so that you have to make the stuff for yourself.

However, on my 4th Yochien/Hoikuen and second kid, I put my foot down and kid got whatever we had in the house or whatever I could buy and bugger them if it was a standard size. The crunch came when we were told to sew a bag about two inches wide and about a foot and a half long. What for????? That pipe mouthpiece they use on their piano accordions! I just laughed and sent him with it in an ordinary drawstring bag and no comments were ever made. As for shoe bags - what the hell is the point, the kids keep their shoes at school and when they need bringing home at holidays (what is THAT, by the way?? Both my kids always have no indoor shoes for about the first ten days after every holiday as we try to relocate all the crap!). So this kid has had no shoe bags and has managed miraculously with plastic shopping bags which I didn't have to then launder after every use. He just graduated yesterday. Whew.

Once I did comment to one yochien that seeing as the population is dropping, maybe they could make themselves a little more popular and get an edge over the competition by cutting out all this performance, but of course I was just smiled at....

Then again, I was thinking about the culture of showing love to your kids, and thought about birthday cakes in the UK, which are usually home made, because a shop-bought cake shows you don't really care. Here I'd say most birthday and Christmas cakes are bought, and I was wondering if that was the British equivalent of sewing a million fiddly bags??! Every culture has its own quirks. It's just a pity that us fence-straddlers gets all the quirks from both sides!

Sarah@mommyinjapan said...

I got lucky when I had to make the bags for both of my girls my mother was in town and she had those bags done in one day. I helped with the ironing.