"I hate sewing & I REFUSE to sew!"

My brother's are likey to remember this story better than I do... however...

Growing up, my mother was the neighborhood seamstress.  She made band costumes, fixed shirts for the neighborhood husbands, hemmed skirts and pants for the neighborhood wives.  She even made clothes for the 3 of us.  Unfortunately, this was the 80's and home-made clothes were not cool.  What I (desperately) wanted was to go to the mall with the other girls and buy clothes at shops like Outback Red or Express or get a rugby shirt (the name of the store is not coming to my memory...). 

My mother was talented & smart, though and all that store bought stuff could be made.  We would make excursions to the fabric store (which I loved).  The possibilities in all the of the colorful fabrics was overwhelming and intoxicating.  Flipping through the pattern books was super fun and I could be happy doing that for hours - dreaming of what I wanted to wear and what my mom could make for me.  Until one day, when she decided I should learn how to sew. 

Come again?

The further set the scene, being the daughter of a seamstress, I had access to unlimited amounts of scrap fabric.  Mom refused to make (or buy) Barbie clothing, so I scavenged for large enough pieces that could be wrapped, taped or rubber banded in place without having to pick up a needle and thread.  Sewing was definitely not for me.

I made a few attempts, don't get me wrong.  But each attempt at the simple things like forward stitches or buttons ended up with the entire thing unravelling in the wash.  From then on, a lost button meant the garment was ready for the Goodwill pile or the garbage.  Because we weren't made of money, my mother wisely suggested teaching me how to sew.

Come again?

I hated it.  I hated everything about sewing.  The getting thread on the bobbin...  putting thread through the eye of the needle... sewing in a straight line...  HATED IT!  Whether it was sewing by hand of with the machine, I was no good at it.  And like any self-preserving teenager, if I was no good at it, I was not going to do it.  From this sense of righteousness and determination, I announced to my well-meaning mother "I hate sewing and I refuse to sew!"  A family legend was born.

It is pure irony that now, 20 or more years later, I  have this INTENSE desire to sew things for my son.  Starting with the curtains.

My previous post (Nursery Part 2) goes into the detail on my trip to the fabric store.  Let me tell you about my day of attempting to bypass sewing...

I bought iron-on seams which entailed (1) laying out the fabric; (2) cutting a piece of the iron-on seam to the same length as the fabric; (3) ironing over the paper side of the iron on seam; (4) remove the paper side, (5) fold the fabric over & (6) ironing the fabric over the iron-on seam.  Sounds easy, right?

Wrong.

Following the instructions, I set the iron to the SILK setting & got through steps 1 and 2 with no problems.  Step 3, however, eluded me.  Did I mention I hate ironing too?

I let the iron sit on the paper side of the seam for 1-2 seconds (as instructed), I let the iron sit on the paper side for a 10+ seconds, I turned the heat on the iron up, I turn the heat on the iron down.  The seam was not adhering to the fabric.  What was supposed to be an easy 6 step process to baby curtains, turned into my Waterloo.  I'm stepping away from the iron now.