I'm sew dumb

So remember how I was all gung-ho a while back about sewing the boys' pants? And remember how well that went for me? And remember how frustrated and upset I was because I couldn't get the stitches nice and tight and non-tangly?

Well, the boys were on me the other night to finish sewing their pants because they're down to like two pairs each. We were in Red Deer the other night and I bought them each some new pants (mostly sweats and track pants for Ard, and jeans for Gunnar). But I knew I'd have to shorten those pants too, so I got out the sewing machine a couple days ago and decided to try this whole thing again. Wouldn't you know it, the seams I was sewing were all screwy, again. So this time I enlisted the help of my mom, seamstress extraordinaire, thinking she could probably fix whatever I was doing wrong.

She fiddled around for a bit on the machine, checking this and that, and as she's showing me the proper way to put the bobbin in, etc, I realized what a dough-head I am. Turns out I was putting the bobbin in the totally wrong way (should have been going in counter-clockwise), not only that but I hadn't even fit the bobbin in its little metal holder properly. Then she asks what setting I was using for the thread length. Huh? What's that mean? She checks the little dial and here I'd had it on the setting 24 (meaning the stitches would be very long) when it should have been on setting 8. Oops! So with everything fixed, she sewed a sample stitch on a facecloth and, of course, it turned out perfectly! Doh!

So she was giggling hysterically, picturing me trying to sew all these pants with my machine not even set up properly, while I was just thinking, "Great! Now I don't have an excuse not to do all these pants!" So that's what I've been doing these last couple days.

But I did come up with an excellent short-cut when it comes to measuring the proper length for the pants. Instead of using pins to mark where the hem should be (off topic, but have you ever looked at the word 'hem'? The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced I'm writing it wrong, its just a weird word. Anyway....), I used a marker! Brilliant! This way I know for sure where the hem (?) is!!

So I guess I'm not that dumb after all, I'm just a really crappy sewing-machine setter-upper! (Now there's a word for ya!)

LOL