season’s don’t fear the reaper…

Posted under uber pro(jects) aka crafties by mel

this morning i have discovered something that shall alter my life forever.  as many of you may be aware, i have had a long history of fearing jersey knit fabric projects.  if you knew this, please make sure you are sitting down before reading further.

long have i avoided projects that require knits only and long have i struggled to find a way to use different fabrics when i simply had to make a certain item.  i have researched online, taken lessons from my mother in law, and practiced with different tensions/threads/needles/stretching while sewing until i thought i’d lose my mind.  yes, the world of jersey knit eluded me and i began the long process of accepting my fate.

but then i found some unbelievably beautiful brown knit jersey…for a dollar a yard.  it was so soft and the texture and colors both rich–very unusual for clearance fabric of any kind.  so i bought it.  i had to.  sure, i knew it would just lay in my fabric box until i was rich enough to afford a serger but i had to have it.  that was december 07.

over the past few months i have taken it out, matched it up with different patters, held it tightly as i cried bitter tears, and then returned it to the box…more than once.

but last night, with a sudden burst of happiness at our upcoming move to portland, i felt like i could accomplish anything.  thankfully, i decided that i would finally start making a dress out of the jersey fabric instead of proving my omnipotence by “flying” off the roof.  i altered a pattern, cut out the pieces, and took several deep breaths as i filled the bobbin, changed to a ball point needle, and threaded my machine.

then i paused.  i was going to do this right.  i was going to go by the directions given by the manufacturer.  i read through some of the manual and *gasp* came across something i hadn’t seen before.  there are straight and zig zag stitches, BUT my machine has another stitch that i never noticed before.  listed as a straight stitch, the “triple stretch stitch” is a built in stitch for stretch fabrics.  wha???

could it be?  a stitch built in for jersey?  my heart started to pound and my palms sweat as i made my way to my machine to try out this stitch on a scrap.  had my whole life been a lie?  was there actually another way to sew jersey on a non-serger machine besides a mixture of straight and zig zag stitches?  i took a few deep breaths and willed my hands to steady themselves.  i inserted the fabric, flipped down the presser foot, and pressed the foot pedal gently.

it worked.  the stitches looked neat from the outside seam line and allowed for stretch without popping a stitch!  when i compared it to a straight and zig zag, there was no comparison.  Jesus loves me.

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it’s funny but this type of situation has happened before.  i will avoid or fear something because of whatever reason, but then when i finally suck it up and try, many times i find that a “miracle” makes my prior fear diminish.  for example, in undergrad i had to take a biology class.  i had not had a good time with it in h.s. so i avoided taking it until my last year.  in this case i kind of had to, but i still got a miracle to help me out which was a really amazing professor that made everything easy (i mean understanding the material not that there was simply no work to do).  it seems like facing the fear is good enough for the powers that be so i am given slack when i finally do forge ahead.  anyone else have this happen?

oh, and here is a more recent example.  i had to write a million papers this semester.  it got down to the last 2 and i was just draiiiiinnnnneed.  i resigned myself and told myself to just shut up and do it.  i finished one and then the next day i was able to get the professor to make the last paper i had to write optional!  so i don’t have to do it!  i resigned and God gave me some slack.  nice.

btw, the reason that the second paper became optional is because i had already included all the material i would have written in that paper in several other papers this semester.  i said that i felt confident that everything that was required for this last paper could already be found in the prior 10.  she agreed to allow us to submit the last paper as a supplement if we felt necessary.

cah-ching!

i’m off to sew now.  i have a whole new world of possibilities to explore.