Mistake Scissors

"Mabes, have you seen my seam ripper?"

"What mommy?"

"My seam ripper?"

"I don't know what dat is," Mabes answered.

"It's that...oh nevermind, I found it. This. This is my seam ripper." I held it up.

"Oh, daaaaaaaaat! Dat's not a seam ripper. Dat's your mistake scissors!"



I have no idea how she came up with that name; I didn't know she noticed me using it. But presumably she heard me say something about messing up and then saw me using the seam ripper. Though she appears to be incapable of listening when I want her to, she does hear and observe everything.

This week I embarked on my most challenging sewing project yet: Easter/spring dresses for Mabes and Annabelle. Because when you have two girls, you make them matching dresses. I started the project acknowledging that it would be a huge learning experience, that it would take time, and that it would probably be very frustrating at times. But that's what mistake scissors are for, and every time I had to rip out a seam, I just reminded myself that I was learning.

So here is a list of what I learned from this project:

1. Plisse is great. You have to be careful when pressing it to not iron out the puckered finish, but if you have to rip out a seam (which I did a lot of), it recovers very nicely.

2. Keep the phone nearby. I'm not sure how many times I called my mom, but at one point, she would answer the phone, "Sewing question?" How did she know it wasn't Dave calling to chat with my dad about the NCAA championship?

3. Keep Mabes away from the pins. Although this one we learned when my mom made her Easter dress 3 years ago (my mom let her play with the little tomato pin cushion and she then stuck a pin in Mom's exercise ball--we think she thought it was a giant pin cushion), it was reinforced last week. I found a nearly empty pin cushion, asked Mabes about it, and she said they were balloons for Ricecake's birthday party. We spent the next half hour scouring the playroom for loose pins.

4. Allow plenty of time. I am not my mom and cannot yet crank out a dress in an hour. But I didn't expect that. I wasn't able to finish in time for Easter, but it wasn't a huge deal since I wasn't planning on having them wear the dresses to sit at home watching General Conference. Instead, I took my time, fully lined them, and even put the tulle in Em's lining, which made the skirt puff out and made Mabes giggle when she tried it on. Totally worth it.

5. Plan on Annabelle having an explosion soon after putting the dress on and take pictures first. She made it to church and through Sacrament meeting in the dress. I had wanted to take more pictures, but at least I got these:








I already have an idea for my next (simpler) project, and since I think I could finish in a day or two, I want to start tomorrow. But my house is a disaster and I need to go grocery shopping, so their matching skirts will have to wait a few days.