In the summertime, I feel like making things.
Cookies, pin cushions, embellished T-shirts, simple sewing projects, bread, jelly.
It is because of 4-H.
Each spring throughout my pre-teen and teenage years, I ambitiously imagined myself sewing away the hot summer days, returning to school donning amazing Hawaiian print shorts and elaborately puff-painted tees. I would sign up for many, many projects -- varied projects, each requiring a blend of things I liked (sewing, painting, measuring ingredients) and things I hated (threading the sewing machine, ironing, kneading). Then, with county fair deadlines looming ominously, I would procrastinate until my 4-H projects became basically a miserable four-day all-nighter.
Results were mixed.
Even so, I mostly look back on 4-H fondly, and the organization left me with two things:
1) The aforementioned desire for summertime craft projects
2) A fairly clear memory of basic sewing skills.
Over the past few months, I've thrifted a number of things that needed small alterations, and yesterday, in a fit of 4-H nostalgia, I decided to hem a skirt I bought a few weeks ago (see above photos) for $1 (!) This involved several extremely easy steps:
1) Deciding on a new length (50 cm, bringing the formerly awkward ankle-length to just above the knee)
2) Drawing a line (measuring with my little sewing tape measure from the waist, instead of from the hem, just like 4-H said to! or possibly that was home-ec)
3) Chopping off the excess fabric
4) Folding the fabric over once, measuring to keep the roll even, pinning, and ironing
5) Folding the fabric again, and again measuring and ironing (bonus: another reason to use my new iron)
6) hemming.
I loved the result (which I didn't bother posting, because it looks basically exactly like the second photo and my crummy Blackberry camera didn't capture the detail of the hem, anyway). I wore it Monday, and I'm hoping to find a whole bunch more of these so I end up with a summertime fleet of full, knee-length skirts.
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