sewing

Varying degrees of difficult

sarah3030, , Leave a comment

The thing that I knew was going to be hard, and turns out I was correct, is being married to a man with children. I hesitate to even use the word step-mom because thanks to my lack of maternal desire, I see my role as supporting them in becoming non-shitty adults. I’m good for borrowing $10, an occasional ride, making their favorite desserts, cheering at sporting or concert events; but the parentiest thing I do is reminding them to do one of two chores they have around the house. The other things that make me crazy or I think are important I take up with Rich and he handles it from there. The hardest thing is when he parents so wildly different than I would and I just have to deal with it. My future is connected to how these kids continue to grow and evolve and learn to be self-sufficient and while I understand that there’s a real possibility one or both of them are living in our basement at the age of 30….I sure hope not.

Enough of that, let’s talk about something that is difficult, but so enjoyable – my adventures in garment sewing! In 2025 I went all in on quilts. And I have a stack of them to make in 2026 as well, but I decided to dabble in making a pair of pants and now here we are. I was in New York a couple months ago and I made a trip to Mood Fabrics encouraged by a recent rewatch of Project Runway. I found some kind of ridiculous pink and orange fabric that had swing-y, drape-y pants written all over them and now I’m running Sarah’s SweatShop out of the basement. A recent clothing purge also provided fabrics to work on and practice with. A linen dress I’m not going to wear again is becoming a pair of shorts. A strapless sundress recently became a cute summery top. I’ve pivoted from buying quilting fabric to some apparel fabric (with mixed results, I really need to buy that in person while I’m learning about weights and blends and such).

The beginning of a sundress. I didn’t fully comprehend the scale of the print when I bought the fabric. Oh well!

Other things I’m loving in this moment are mornings on the patio, often with at least one pet. Oliver, my 15 year old, best cat ever is my morning patio buddy and I’m so happy it’s warming up so we can do this for the next many months.

Crafting through it

sarah3030, , Leave a comment

Last year I made sure to get to some creative projects and it was a success. I mostly rehabbed a chair (I will finish it this year, I need to do it outside and it’s cold out), I quilted Christmas placemats, I made Friendship Bracelet Christmas tree garland, I watercolored fruit and disco balls and a few other things. I enjoyed having the sewing machine out and cleaned up the basement enough to set up my sewing table without blocking the workout space so I could do more sewing in 2025. I then had the ambitious idea to make my nieces a quilt for this Christmas. I know full well, and my sister has already cautioned me, they will not think this is an amazing Christmas gift, but my dad got my sisters and I a quilt when we were about their age for Christmas and it was special. My mother is certainly not a quilter, so Aunt Sarah is going to have to take this up.

I found a fun pattern for my oldest niece (11). She’s a little wacky and all over the place and this pattern is a little all over the place. It require lots of novelty fabric scraps. Luckily, I learned there’s a market to buy fabric scraps on Etsy. I purchased a few bundles and got some real gold for the project. In addition, there were lots of scraps that are perfect for my new favorite little gift craft – coffee sleeves. I had a reusable coffee sleeve that I used and loved for a few years until I accidentally threw it away with my coffee one day. So when I needed to start getting some sewing practice in AND had all of this fabric – I decided to make some and send them to friends during this time of existential dread.

Coffee sleeves from the cutest Sleeping Beauty fabric

I sent those off to my friend Jenna, along with a matching Sleeping Beauty quilted coaster. I was pretty pleased. I made a couple others last night to send as Valentine’s treats for some friends and will make a few more this week. I made a cute card and who doesn’t like a fun surprise in the mail?!

I’ve also resurrected some knitting projects and continue to teach myself new crochet stitches. Anything to keep my hands busy and avoid the doomscroll.