Sewing Class

Well, I did it. I finally broke down and bought a voucher to learn to sew with a sewing machine. The funny thing is that I’m not quite sure how I managed to make it for 30 something years without actually learning to use a sewing machine – my mom, dad, grandma, and great grandma all make quilts, clothes and so on. Somehow, however, when it came right down to my learning how to do this, I quite simply didn’t.

Mom would say it wasn’t for lack of trying. I can remember her offering to teach me several times and me just saying no thanks. My grandma, I know she did get me seated at her machine when I was knee high to a rattle snake – we made a pillow – but I was more interested in trying to go outside and play when I was about 5 years old than I was in learning how to sew something together. Dad – when I mentioned about the class, he said I really thought you knew – didn’t you take that as a class in school?

Well, I did take a home economics class in middle school (6 weeks to cram everything in from sewing basics, to cooking basics, to how to balance a budget and a checkbook). As I recall we did learn a few basic stitches – eg. learn to sew on a button, a snap and repair a hole. We also “learned” to use a foot treadle powered sewing machine – there were 3 for 30 students – for about 20 minutes in the basic course. Let’s just say that it didn’t stick. I’m not sure if I just didn’t learn, or if I didn’t remember because I didn’t want to learn – but modern machines are quite different than this treadle powered beast of a machine which we used.

Anyhow, I decided, after seeing a pile of trousers that needed hemmed (and spending 15 Euros each to have them hemmed) that it would be a great idea to finally learn to sew. The voucher came just in time, and was a basic 3 hour course at When Poppy met Daisy to learn to use a sewing machine. Me, H, and J all decided to attend, as a “girls night out” type event. We had to each pick out our fabrics – H chose a pink print with little hearts, J chose a fabric with cats and funny social networking quotes. I chose an abstract big flower print from ikea.

The class covered the basics – from threading the machine, to creating a bobbin and bobbin thread.

Once we learned the basic parts of the machine, the instructor started us out sewing on a piece of lined notebook paper – both a straight stitch and a zigzag stitch. The paper, because of lines, let us learn to sew straight lines. It also helped us to judge if we were going too fast / too slow (the paper would tear) or if we needed to adjust the tension higher or lower. Brilliant idea – as it wasn’t actually messing up any fabrics.

Once we had mastered the straight lines, we moved on to some scrap fabric – sewing a basic hem. Then we moved on to the French Hem.

Finally, we started on our project, combining all that we had learned together. It was a makeup bag, closing with a smidge of velcro. We had 3 happy girls by the end of the class – and I think that I’ll eventually go back and learn some additional stitching – like shirt or skirt making.

On a side note, despite the fact that it was supposed to be a makeup bag, J decided it made a better hat than a bag.

Well, I guess that’s one way to do it!!

Day trip to Malahide Beach

Back in the beginning of July, as I was walking the Everest Challenge, A, J, and I decided to head to the beach and have a nice afternoon walk.

The weather was overcast, as is typical here in Ireland, and the water was freezing. It didn’t stop us, however, from slipping off our shoes walking on the tidal flats

and then going for a bit of a wade into the salty water of Malahide beach.

Despite sinking quickly once I was out in the water, I did have to laugh when A decided to get up to a bit of mischief…

by splashing J (who, like me, was shocked at how cold the water is!) to help her get used to it. Taking off with a cackle, she promptly sped out of range, so she couldn’t get splashed back herself…

J took it with a fine sense of humor,

and very quickly, we were off to find the “perfect” bit of sand to dig our heels into – and leave our footprints behind.

It’s just a good thing it didn’t mess up our toenails!

On the way back, we passed 3 old ladies sitting on a wall, overlooking the beach. As we paused to brush the sand off our feet and then replace our shoes, they commented on not only what a lovely day it was – but also how well we 3 younger ladies seem to get along. The funny thing was that somehow, I could picture A, J, and me, in 40 years, sitting on the wall – and see a reflection of ourselves in them. Just goes to show – the more things change, the more things stay the same.

Olympic Decorations at work

Here where I work, we’re totally into the Olympics. Since it’s an international community and an international workplace, we try to generally avoid conflict because of cultures and cultural influences and find ways to bridge these differences. When the olympics comes around, however, things change. The Olympics are a huge source of nationalism (via sporting events), team work, and joy as we can all celebrate the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals with others of a particular nationality. All around the building, we constantly hear – Sure, my guy lost, but yours won – what a stunning finish/great match.. etc.!

In Honor of the Olympics, the events committee here at work has decided to challenge us on a floor by floor basis – to support charities, to decorate, and to show our cultural diversity while celebrating how well we can work together. On my floor, we have many varied nationalities – including French, Spanish, Portugese, Dutch, American, Irish, Italian, German, Polish, Indian, Canadian, Brazillian – and this is just the ones I know about!

The idea was were supposed to choose 1 color, but the floor decided to go for "ALL" the colors. I made paper chains for all the desks (I was up until 1:30 am) – and there were Olympic balloons for the end caps. There were also olympic balloon rings; and flags representing the countries of all our team mates on the floor.

We managed to get sports equipment & pictures of nearly every sport up on our columns, and then people participated in desk chair rowing, desk basketball, desk badminton, mini-football, and stick horse racing at the time of “judging”.