the spirits of family seamstresses smiling down on me

the skirt is done!!

and the capri's are starting to come together! i'm so excited.

you see, i come from a long line of women who know/knew how to sew and sew well! my mother

quilts and used to make clothes (still does on occasion). my grandmother used to make clothing for my mother and her 5 siblings and my great grandmother (on my dad's side) was an amazing seamstress, it was what she did for a living. and though this creativity runs in my veins from both parent's families, there was no guarantee that i would actually be able to make anything (take my poor sister: the creative bone skipped her and went straight to my brother and myself). i mean, i'm pretty confident in my abilities, for the most part, but there is always a lingering doubt and the knowledge that i'll probably run out of patience, set the project aside and never come back to it! i'm good at that, i recognize it and i'm trying to be more consistent in my finishing of projects.

the skirt was sooooo easy (there are more photos of each on my flickr page, just click on either of the pictures)! it's just a simple wrap skirt, i know, but it was instant gratification! i even embellished the bottom of the skirt with a decorative stitch. now i want to make one for me! i just hope it fits Maddie properly.

and the capri's...the capri's...remember how i said i was leary because it seemed too easy. well upon further reading of the instructions, i realized that if i followed the directions the pants would come out completely wrong and messed up! thankfully, upon further inspection of a pair of capri's turned inside out (that i already own), i was able to figure out how they needed to be cut and stitched for them to come out actually looking like pants! i'm bringing the pattern instructions to my mother to see if she understands them. crazy things!

AND!! this is the best part of today, so far: i get in to work late (because i had a dr's appointment) and i'm telling my co-worker, marcia and my friend, melissa about the sewing projects; marcia says, "well, i think you should just take tomorrow off and spend the day sewing!" and since marcia is keeper of the schedule, she could make that happen for me. i thought about it and asked her, "would you mind?" she just smiled, pulled the friday calendar up on the computer and typed "TIFF OFF" at the top of the day and said, "done, but i want to see you in those capri's on monday morning!". so i have tomorrow off to do nothing but sew! how wonderful is that?

yippee!!!!!