There's a scene in Meet the Robinsons where Wilbur is explaining his father's difficulty in inventing the time machine. He goes through all the prototypes and eventually points at a frowny face picture and a picture of a toilet. (It doesn't translate as well in print, but I couldn't find a YouTube video of the scene.) That particular scene has moved forefront in my mind as I stare down a sewing disaster.
Every year my gifted students have an end of the year party and choose a particular theme. This year's class was particularly clever in that they decided all the juniors would be a particular Greek god or goddess and all the freshmen and sophomores would come in simple togas as the plebeians they are. Because of the role I play in my students' lives, they assigned me Gaia or Mother Earth the original goddess. She and Father Time begot even the mighty Titans. I readily jumped on board and about a week ago had a fabulous idea. I used to sew in college and thought it would be great if I could put together a simple olive green dress and buy a copper/bronze fabric to wrap around as a toga. Then I could wear the green dress again and again. It would be significantly cheaper than finding a costume and far more useful. Well, college has been many moons ago and I don't have my own sewing machine. That's when idea number two popped into my head: I'll use my grandmother's machine and bond with her while I sew! It was brilliantly devised! I would have an awesome handmade costume and quality time with Grandma.
As I mentioned before, I have sewn before. I might not understand every single direction in a pattern, but I sure know how to cut and pin and put together. If I had simply asked my grandmother for her machine and brought it home, I probably would have had a few bumps but a relatively decent dress when all was said and done. Instead, I probably shoved my grandma a few feet closer to her grave. Of course it was unintentional. How was I supposed to know she would take over the whole project to save me any frustration from what she deemed was a bad pattern and awful choice in fabric?
There were the more hilarious moments when she described one of her thimbles as a condom for a little bitty petey. And one evening my mother even came over and we had a few good laughs between the three of us, but four days into this dress adventure and I was still sans dress. With my event tomorrow, this evening I had to fight every urge to grab the pieces of fabric and the thread and needle and finish putting it together by hand. As my grandma struggled to get everything just right, I could see the finished product in my mind and ways to put all the pieces together in an acceptable way. Yet out of love and respect for my grandmother I controlled all those impulses because I didn't want to hurt her feelings or make her think she was causing me anxiety over an unfinished product.
Since my life has been in the crapper anyway as of late, I came home determinedly miserable but stable. Then my mom called to check in on the progress, and of course I started to lose it. Mom understood how frustrated both parties were, not at each other, but at the blasted dress. She offered to call Grandma and see if she could help finish up the dress tonight. Two hours later my mother called me back and asked me to meet them at JC Penney.
Apparently, my mother made the executive decision to simply buy me a suitable dress to match the toga wrap. Her choice saved the sanity of my grandmother and me. I gladly met them and fell immediately in love with the dress she had chosen for me (this is saying a lot because my entire life we have gone 'round and 'round about her taste versus mine). The icing on the cake is that she also purchased me jewelry to match!
I'm a little put out about the time and material lost in this endeavor, BUT I am still getting my grandma's kick ass sewing machine out of the deal and will probably start taking sewing classes for something new to do.
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