Alterations

Today I experienced another one of those thankful moments. I know that we should be thankful always, see I Thessalonians 5:18, but today was one of the moments of remembering past experiences and being very thankful I had them. Growing up Tara and I were shipped off to Grandma's house for two weeks during the summer. This was to fill many purposes: spending time with the grandparents, alone time for Mom and Dad, vacation time for everyone, and sewing time with Grandma. Most of our 4-H sewing projects didn't start until the weeks spent with Grandma. What didn't get finished with Grandma was probably not going to get finished right before fair time. If it wasn't grandma's teaching then it was Aunt Ziba's sewing instruction and persisitance that we do it with precision that taught me my sewing skills. Sewing skills that I definitely did not think were very cool back then, but today I am very glad that they taught me.

Today was the day that I remembered how handy it is to have knowledge and skill to use a sewing machine. In such a day as this it is simply ridiculous to buy new clothes everytime something gets a hole, loses its cool fashion style, or doesn't fit anymore. My good friend Miss Jamie got me started on the alterations during Thanksgiving when she brought over some pants to be taken in. Today I worked on four different pairs of jeans and now I kind of feel like I have a whole new wardrobe. One pair needed some patches put in the crotch area where the good ole legs rubbed the denim a little too thin. Last month I bought a pair of jeans at a thrift store that needed to be hemed, done. I have been wanting to create some skinny jeans to put more smoothly into my boots, so today I took my pair of flare leg pants and made then skinny leg! The final project I am super excited about. After retrieving a pair of jeans from a give away pile that were much too big for me, I thought to myself, "Surely I can just sew these in and make them smaller." Sure enough, my free pair of jeans just became my size, tailored to fit me. This really is refreshing!

Thanks to all the home economists in my life that shared their knowledge so I can alter, update, and prolong the life of my closet. If anybody has any sewing needs, you just come on over. We happen to have two sewing machines in this house.