I can sew! (sort of)

Wow, what a crappy weekend. Conrad's stomach bug was NAS-TY, and my poor baby was getting so dehydrated that we considered taking him to the ER to put him on an IV. He wouldn't drink anything--we tried every flavor of Pedialyte--until we forced liquid down his throat with a syringe. It wasn't pretty. :(

Luckily Conrad started feeling better last night.

Unluckily, this morning a pipe broke (or something), and water is dripping through the basement ceiling onto my bookshelf in the office.

Currently Conrad is taking a nap, and I'm waiting for the plumber. Ugh.

Since I'm not in the mindset of tackling my to-do list (clean! the! house! and get! ready! for! Christmas!) I took out my beloved (and wrinkled) first sewing project and took some photos.

I made a robe. It's a very simple, Kimono-style robe.

(There's no seam on the back--that's just an accidental fold.)

The robe's got belt loops and a pocket...

and top-stitching...

and plenty of beginner's mistakes.

But it's wearable and practical, and I love it. I couldn't have sewn anything without taking sewing lessons--unlike knitting, sewing is quite difficult, at least for me, and there's no way I could have taught myself. My MIL got me a machine for graduation, but it sat in a closet for a year because I felt too intimidated by it. (I'm still intimidated by it! It's got way more buttons than the machine at The Sewing Parlour. But I got this book [and this one] [and this one], and hopefully I'll get a chance to sew on my own before I forget everything I've learned.)

One big thing I noticed about sewing that's totally different from knitting is that you don't actually spend a lot of time sewing. It's all about planning: cutting the pattern, choosing the right fabric, pressing the fabric, marking the fabric, cutting the fabric, pressing the fabric, pinning the fabric. It takes a loooong time before you actually sit down and sew something. And the sewing happens so fast that, before you know it, you're back at the ironing board pressing the fabric. And so on. A nice bonus result of having taken a sewing class: it has cured me of my fear of ironing. :)