It all started early in November sometime. I was trying to plan a wedding shower and my next Stampin' Up! workshops when Zachary came home one day and told me he needed a King Arthur costume for his school's Wax Museum project. I started looking online for costumes. I thought a knight with a crown would be good, and I called Kurtis to let him know about my annoyance for needing this on a pretty short notice. He said he needed it for the 20th (or one of those days). I think that if I had ordered the costume within the next few days, I would have plenty of time to order it. But all the costumes were $35 and up. I was frustrated that I couldn't find something in his size either.
"Can't you just make it?" Kurtis asks in exasperation.
Well, that was a mistake right there. I did not take that very well. 1. I couldn't find the foot speed control (I accidentally was calling it the presser foot -oops)/plug to the machine. It's kind of essential if I want to use my machine. It's only the part that makes the machine run, after all. 2. I didn't want to freaking make him a costume! I was planning a wedding shower and two Stampin' Up! workshops! How dare he?
Zach came home a couple of days later and told me they had moved the Wax Museum to December 4th (I swear he said 5th!) because one of the teachers couldn't be there the original day. Nice, you must be thinking. Now, I have more time to find a costume. Well, for me, it's more like now I have more time to forget about finding him a costume. And that is exactly what happened.
Thanksgiving weekend, Kurtis took the boys outside and they cleaned up the yard. I decided that while they were doing that, I would clean the garage a little and make it so I could fit the car in there. I thought it would snow more and I wanted my car in the garage for the winter. While I was doing this, low and behold! I found my foot speed control/plug to my sewing machine! My first reaction was, "Hooray!" Then I was all like, "Oh, great. Now I have to make Zach's costume for his school thing." It was a matter of principle. I wanted to show Kurtis it wouldn't be much cheaper (if at all) for me to make Zach's costume. I was right by the way. In the end, it was only cheaper because of a Black Friday sign that hadn't been taken down by the time I got to the fabric store. If I hadn't gotten 60% off the $15 a yard fabric, I would have had to pay $45 just for the fabric (I wouldn't have by the way. Because that would have been stupid). Then there is the cost of thread and the fur collar. Which I got half off at another fabric store. The total cost of my project was about $32.
I decided that I would only make him a cloak. I considered making the tunic as well, but the fabric for the cloak was crazy enough, so we used an old Halloween costume of the Grimm Reaper for the tunic. We had told him that he had to make his crown and he did that and made some rings for his fingers as well.
I cut out the fabric, and pinned it all together and got ready to sew. The tension was all wrong, so I looked up what to do on the internet. The bobbin is supposed to turn clockwise, the tension settings were fine, but even then, the feed dog did not want to pull the fabric through the presser foot. I had so many problems with my machine that it is nothing short of a miracle that I didn't pick up my machine and throw it at the wall. Well, and that I finished it in time. Remember, I thought I had until the 5th (I started on the 27th). One day, I didn't work on it at all (Thursday). Zach came home from school and noticed that I hadn't and he says to me, "Mom.... I don't want to be rude or anything, buuuut, I need my costume on Monday." "Whaaaat? I thought you needed it on the 5th!" "No, the Wax Museum is on the 4th and my teacher says she wants me to wear my costume during the rehearsal on Monday."
Oh, that's awesome. I worked on it all day Friday. Once in awhile screaming at the machine for eating my fabric. I'm glad no one else was around. Saturday night, I put the bobbin in the wrong direction and didn't realize it. I was trying to sew on the bottom hem and it wasn't sewing right and started to eat the fabric again. I threw my hands up and screamed, "I hate sewing!!!" I had said this a few times before. I hate sewing because the patterns are freaking expensive (Zach's was a steal at $9.95 - not on sale) and made out of tissue paper that tears easily. You can't reuse them unless you want to make the same size again. My friend later told me she traces her patterns onto another kind of paper so she can reuse them over and over, but honestly, that takes too much time and I just wanted to get this over with. I hate sewing because my machine eats my fabric sometimes.
Kurtis' response to my rant: "Then why did you want a sewing machine in the first place?"
That didn't go over well either. Not cool, Kurtis. Not cool. That sewing machine is probably ten years old for one thing (which means it probably needs maintenance), and for another. To me, it's a tool. You need a hammer or a drill, but you don't go around drilling holes in your walls all the freaking time do you? I wanted to punch him and I told him he was being a douchebag. He wasn't trying to be. But I don't care. Both those things he said were douchebag things to say, and I called him on it. The end.
So the rest of Saturday night, I was sewing the hem on the cloak by hand. I didn't even get a quarter of the way done when I went to bed. The next day, I decided to check the bobbin to see if that was the problem (divine interference right there), and it was in wrong. I tried again and I ended up still having to hand sew the very edge because the fabric was too thick for my machine, but that was so much better than trying to sew the whole hem by hand. Whew. Then, I had to sew on the fur collar by hand and I was done! Yay! I finished it in time! Yay, me!
Zach is such a sweetheart. He heard me grumbling about not liking to sew and while I was working on it, he would come up to me and say, "Mom, I'm really grateful to you for helping me with my costume and for making this cloak. It's going to be really awesome."
He was right. It is really awesome.
He was so excited. Here is a closer view of the collar and his crown.
You can't really tell, but the purple fabric has gold shimmery stuff in it, and it's really beautiful. Fit for royalty, you might say. :D He was supposed to tie a rope around his waist and cinch up the reaper costume, but I had just finished the cloak and was so excited to be done, that I just had to take a picture of him wearing it right then. The rest of the night, he ran around the house with the cloak billowing behind him. He loved it. :D
1 comment:
That turned out so nice! Good job! I have had moments with my sewing machine that were not very pretty. There may have even been a swear word or two uttered...
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