Day One: Placemats!

                When I was in first grade, my mom sewed me an elf Halloween costume. The costume worked like this: my legs were hidden inside the trunk of a toadstool and around my waist was the toadstool’s cap, on top of that were two fake legs constructed from pantyhose stuffed with cotton filling. From the waist up I was dressed in a green vest and a pointy green cap, giving the impression that I was sitting on the toadstool. My mom sewed the entire thing from a Martha Stewart Halloween costume book, that if I remember correctly was full of clever children’s costumes like the sitting elf and adult costumes that were mostly literal interpretations of common phrases. The “jailbird” costume featured a woman wearing a feathered headdress and fake chains around her ankles, the “serial killer” costume was a guy dressed all in black stabbing a box of Wheaties, a “stool pigeon” had a beak attached to his forehead and was sitting on a three legged stool (perfect if you plan on staying stationary for an entire Halloween party). My mom spent hours making the elf costume with her sewing machine, but when I wore it to school, every single other first grader in the Halloween parade was wearing a pink Power Rangers costume from CVS, even the boys. It was a parade of 45 Kimberlys and one pair of stuffed pantyhose sitting on a fungus. Every time I turned around I knocked over a pink-masked six year old with the girth of my mushroom cap.  I was super embarrassed. Nobody elses' legs were encased inside a toadstool trunk. Nobody elses' mom had made their costume. That night, I refused to trick-or-treat in the elf costume (because seriously kids are the worst) and my mom quickly whipped up some cat ears and black leggings and I went as a cat instead.

                I always took for granted that my mom was so good at sewing. In fact, throughout elementary school and into middle school it always seemed a little embarrassing. Sewing was so domestic, and women were supposed to be liberated from all that household stuff when they set their bras on fire in the seventies, right?  But I didn’t argue during ninth grade crew when she sewed up the flared leggings she bought me to run in when everyone else had bought straight-legged leggings. And I didn’t argue when she altered my prom dress when I realized it didn’t fit twenty minutes before my date arrived.

                I thought that sewing would be a good project for my first day of taking a break because it’s how I used to take a break when I actually had real things to do. I asked my mom for a sewing machine two years ago when I really wanted to make my own pillows for my couch, and it didn’t take long to realize why my mom had spent so much time sewing when I was a kid. It’s relaxing and mentally challenging at the same time (you even have to do math sometimes!) and producing something that you can hold and use is incredibly satisfying. Another great thing about sewing is it’s an excuse to watch TV and feel productive at the same time. Today I watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and then accidentally, Mean Girls 2. (It’s just as bad as you think it is and unironically involves a lot of girls walking in pyramid formation with an unidentified wind source blowing their hair dramatically and the line “Maybe we can talk about it over some non-fat soy raspberry lattes!”)

 I’m not a super accomplished sewer yet, and today I went for something easy: placemats.

Not super accomplished or organized:this is how I fold and store my pattern pieces.

Right before I realized I should have measured before I cut.

I got the fabric at the Ann Arbor Sewing Center, an independent sewing store. Not because I only shop at independent stores (although it's great to support independent stores! I'm just poor!), but mostly because the Joanne's Fabrics in Ann Arbor pretty much only stocks weird colorful fleece.Welcome to Michigan, I guess its cold here.

Reversible placemats!

 I was going to say that I wasn’t going to go step by step through how to make these placemats because anyone should be able to figure out how to cut out rectangles and sew them together, but then I immediately mis-measured and didn’t have enough fabric. (Like I said, sometimes sewing involves math).But luckily I had some extra fabric that sort of matched, so I made two of the four placemats reversible, which ended up being a happy accident because I actually really like the way they turned out.

So, there it is: my first day of taking a break. I didn’t even feel guilty. Well, now I sort of do because I’m still watching Mean Girls 2.