a Moment

[shadesong]

So Elayna's watching Looney Tunes, and I'm at the dining room table sewing Try-It patches on her Girl Scout vest. Now, as I may have mentioned before, I am a horrible seamstress. Possibly the worst the world has ever seen. My stitches are big and clumsy and ugly. I have never been good at this.

Elayna comes over to the table. "What're you doing?"
"Sewing patches on your vest."
"Oh." She watches me for a moment. "You're really good at that."
I laugh. "No, I'm not very good at all..."
She hugs me. "You are to me." And goes back to the TV.

Yeah. That's what this is all about.

Comments

[phantom_wolfboy]

Awwww....that's so sweet. :}

[technomom]

How sweet!

I tried doing the patches. I've come to the conclusion that they are NOT meant to be done by hand. So a friend who actually sews puts Katie's patches on using her machine.

I'm in awe....

[sambear.livejournal.com]

of anyone who can do needlecraft/work/sewing.

Re: I'm in awe....

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Be in awe of mousegrrl, not me; I'm helpless! :)


Ï

[m0usegrrl.livejournal.com]

i used to sew the patches on Elayna's vest for her, when i was briefly living in Atlanta... ::sniffle:: i miss Miss Kid!!! and shadesong and yendi!! =(

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I miss you too, and not just because of the sewing! Seriously, looking at her vest, you can tell who sewed on which patches... mouse has these nice neat tiny even stitches, and I'm all over the place.

So. I just sewed 4 Try-Its and performed abdominal surgery on a Pound Puppy. My eyes hurt, my head hurts, my fingertips hurt, and I am Taking a Break. Later tonight - three patches for the back of her vest. Camping, Cookie Sale (not the Try-It; the one you get for selling 60 boxes) and Green Circle, which is huge and comes with a little separate patch to denote that she took the Brownie portion of Green Circle.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I don't think I know anyone who has a machine... you're right, though, they're horrible to hand-sew, and no matter what they say, they are *not* iron-on!

[technomom]

I tried the iron-on adhesive last year. It was a bad idea. They never did look all that great. In fact, we just bought a new vest and all this year because it was too much of a pain to try getting the old troop's numbers off and replacing them with the new ones.

My stepdaughter has a machine that her mother gave her last Christmas. I technically own a machine (my parents gave it to me because Mom hasn't used it in a decade), but it needs some serious servicing before it's usable, and I haven't thrown the at least $75 at it to make that happen yet. And after it's working, I'd still have to learn to use it.

The girls attempted to sew on their own patches using Geni's machine, but they didn't look too good that way, either. There was a very stark difference between the ones they did and the ones Alisa had done for us. I think they need more practice with things that don't need to be lined up right before heading to patches on vests.

And Alisa doesn't mind sewing them on - she's definitely the kind of person who'd say "no!" if she did mind.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

We oughtn't to have a problem changing out the troop numbers. I sewed those on myself. They'll come off *really* easily. :)

I'd get a machine, but really, that'd be all I'd ever use it for! Someone needs to start a patch-sewing business. I would *gladly* pay to not have to do this.


o

Re:

[technomom]

I'm told that most alterations people will, in fact, sew on the patches. Unfortunately, I've yet to encounter one who speaks English, and I'm not sure the insignia would get attached as intended. I guess we could try pinning them on or something.

The lady at...

[sambear.livejournal.com]

...that place we went that time for Katiecat's ballet stuff was reasonably fluent in Engrish as long as we safety-pinned everything for her....

Re: The lady at...

[technomom]

Hmm - she must be far more fluent than the guy who has been there every time I've picked stuff up or dropped it off. He's limited to saying "when you want?" and doing a lot of pointing to get people to put their names and phone numbers on the little slips of paper.

No, wait, he said "thank you" a lot when I took back the clothing we were given by mistake. I'm still not certain he really understood what I was telling him, though.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Hm. I think we have an alterations place near us. I could try that...

[technomom]

Almost forgot - last year, Geni's Brownie troop leader decided that the girls were going to sew on their own insignia, because it's a Learning Experience. And because she was certain that the mothers wouldn't bother to do them. That's all well and good in terms of encouraging self-sufficiency - but if it's hard for adults, how do you think it was for 6-8 year old girls, most of whom had never held a needle before in their lives?

She came home with a snarled mess of vest, numbers, and messy thread - as did all the other girls. They were supposed to finish them by themselves. I don't think anyone in the troop ever did.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Okay, I understand that Girl Scouting is all about learning to be self-reliant and stuff, but expecting Brownies to sew all their own insignia? That shows a very tenuous grasp on reality on the part of the leader.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Ohh, when we meet in person, I'll tell you all about the idiot who led Elayna's troop this year.... way too much to type. It'll be a long talk!


=

[technomom]

It wasn't very surprising that she quit after one year. The one trip they took was to a haunted house - and then they took the girls out of line and wouldn't allow them to go in because someone coming out said it was too scary for kids. Basically, they gathered every other Tuesday night for cookies, Kool-aid, and some crappy crafts project. At the end of the year Geni still had no friggin' idea what the Girl Scout Promise or Law were, and I don't think the troop had actually earned any Try-Its. And while the entire troop was moving up to Juniors, the leader didn't bother doing any of the Bridging activities with them. She did, however, give all of them the little Bridging patch at the end of the year, which is just stupid.

Okay, yes, I wasn't impressed. Sorry.

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

She might well yell at me for doing this, but I don't think she'll repudiate her padawan for it... :)

zortified lives in Atlanta and quilts professionally. She might be willing to sew some patches on for a minor amount (I'd do it for free, but I live in Dallas, and I doubt ya want to mail 'em ^_^), since it wouldn't take much time, and is for a good cause. :) And it can't hurt to ask her.

And a warning to the easily confused: yes, her name is James. She writes fan fiction; you may or may not know the name, since you seem to have very few fandoms in common, though she *does* write Buffy slash. Know the name James Walkswithwind?

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Not familiar, no... my friend edie22 writes Smallville slash, so that's really the only slash (and slash writer) I follow. Where's her stuff? I'd love to read it!

Re:

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

James' fic

She has many, many, MANY fandoms. ^_^ Good writer, a good friend of mine, and a good seamstress, too, as far as I can tell from pics. And I'm a fairly good judge of quilts. :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

*Wow*. That *is* a lot of fandoms. I've bookmarked her page to read when I have time...

Re:

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

May I highly recommend the Centaur AU Houston Knights series? Even if you don't know much about Houston Knights...it was a cop show in the 70s, I think. Maybe early 80s, not sure. But it's got a really good looking Chicago Italian cop transferred to Houston and partnered with an extremely stereotypical cowboy-type...and of course the slash ensues 'cause HEY, they flirt well! :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yummy! :) I need to get the link to edie22's slash - she only does Smallville, but she does it well. :)

Re:

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

Well, if you go to my webpage, I have a ficlinks page to all my favourite authors in my favourite fandoms. ^_^

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Edie's stuff is at fanfiction.net - just do an author search for "edie". :)