Monday, October 05, 2009

Mickey Mouse

I'm a half-a**ed crafter. I do not come by my skill-less-ness honestly- my mother has always been a gifted crafter- she majored in Home Economics, and was an expert sewer and knitter. All my life we had homemade sweaters and mittens. I never did learn to do either, despite a few attempts. I had some success on the Knitting Knobby, making throw rugs for my Barbies, but when I tried knitting with actual needles I didn't get far before I sat on my needles and broke them. In my own home ec. class, I picked out a pattern for some cool diaper-design shorts. These were shorts that were all one piece- when you put them on, you kind of tied the back on, and then put the rest through your legs and tied them on in the front. Like a diaper. Surprisingly, I can't find a link to anything like them online to post here, so you'll have to use your imagination. Anyway, I got about halfway through making them and lost interest. I somehow finished them enough to get through the class but never did wear them.
But as an adult I tried a few things, and over the years my crafting gene has blossomed a bit. I did cross-stitch for a stretch in my 20's, and wasn't too bad at that. I learned to crochet through a mini-course at my parish. A lovely woman there volunteered to teach us to make baby blankets for hospitalized children. My first one turned out so bad, and I am NOT making this up, that they wouldn't let me give it to a baby. One of the kids in the mini-course said "well, they could give it to a blind baby!" I've gotten better at crocheting since then, although I only really know how to do one stitch.
A few years ago, Scott bought me a sewing machine for Christmas. It's a simple one, and I like using it, but I have no idea what I'm doing. I actually altered a bridesmaid dress a few years ago, despite having no right to think I could do such a thing. It held through the reception though and I saved a LOT of money doing it myself. This weekend I found a great tip for how to hem pants. I did my new jeans and a couple other pairs of pants, andLink they came out pretty good, despite my only "eyeballing" them, and not measuring a thing. I was pretty proud of myself, and it only encourages me to fake my way through sewing projects without working on developing any actual skills. Maybe I'll try a quilt someday... how hard could that be, right? All straight lines? Ah well, I am a Mickey-Mouse crafter. But as my father has been known to say (with a wink), "sometimes, Mickey is the man!"

2 comments:

CatholicWizKid said...

You can major in Home Ec? I did not know.

sf said...

Be grateful you lost interest in the diaper shorts. I've noticed they never created much of a trend....