30 July 2008

God created man to create machines for a reason

Last night, after various chores had been completed, I sat down to watch tv and picked up my pillow form, liner, whatever you want to call it. I made a few stitches. It wasn't so bad, but I quickly ran out of patience, and my fingers were bleeding. All the confidence I had built the previous night was shattered. I put it down. I picked it up. My attention was waning, but I really really really want to accomplish this. So, I stomped downstairs, grabbed the sewing machine, and took it to my dining room table and set it up.

We fought for a little while. I brought over my pillow form, and tried to sew it closed. The thread broke, as it always does. I couldn't keep it going straight. But I was determined. And finally, after what seemed like forever, but was probably just 10 minutes, it all came together. I sewed that pillow form's seams. It took 5 minutes. FIVE! The machine worked, and it worked fast, and it worked well. What was I thinking hand sewing? It took me two hours to get halfway through that pillow form. It took me 2 minutes to do the rest with that glorious machine.

Which left me enough time to cut, pin and sew the outside pillow cover. Which took maybe 10 minutes to sew with that machine. The real challenge of the evening was sewing the outside cover shut without the seam showing. That was tough, especially because it was a full pillow, filled with 1.5 pounds of poly-fil stuffing. The seam is messy. I didn't know how to finish it off. That is what seam rippers are for.

To the casual observer, it probably doesn't matter. But the integrity of the pillow is at stake. So, either way, I'm almost done. Just that tricky seam and the decorative buttons.

The point of this story is this:

I should have just started with that machine. Instead of going the hand sewing route. I could have made 5 pillows by now!

Ok. Maybe just 1. Possibly 2 if I had been really determined.

But still. I'm in love with this machine. I have a feeling we're going to be good friends.

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