If I had all the time in the world...

...I would learn to sew.  Properly.  I think.

For years, I refused to have anything to do with sewing or anything that could be evenly slightly, remotely related to something a seamstress might do.  Part of the reason for that was because when I was young, I was forced to take several years of sewing lessons.  These lessons included tips on how to make your own pastel-colored, gigantic-floral-patterned jumper, complete with matching 2" buttons running the length of said jumper.  The outfit looked something like this:

Imagine bigger.  More floral. With buttons. On someone well over three years of age.  Then try to imagine being told to be excited because -- guess what! -- that was your one new outfit a year. And you got to make it yourself!

There was a reason that I ran fast and far whenever someone started talking about sewing their own clothes.  For years, the hideous mental image that was permanently scarred onto my brain (when all other memories of life before age 19 or 20 were blocked) was all that I could see when I heard the words sew and clothes in the same sentence.

In my early adult years, things slowly started to change.  I bought a sewing machine, even though for ten years (or was it closer to 15?) I swore I'd never touch one again.  I started sewing quilts, quillows, and working on little projects that struck my interest.  Then honey asked me to hem a pair of pants, fix a sweater, and I realized that I would have to use the words sew and clothes in a sentence. 

Several years later, my best friend's mother started sewing clothes.  At first, I was afraid to look at those clothes.  But -- wonder of wonders! -- I found that instead of looking like a hideous pair of pastel overalls on a giant toddler, the clothes that this woman made were beautiful. She stuck to sheath dresses in pretty prints and everything looked like it could've walked out of The Loft or some other fashionable retailer.

Now I've decided that I am okay with home-sewn clothes as long as they look handmade NOT homemade.  My skills are non-existent, but I am open to the skills of others.  And now I enjoy collecting fabrics and supplies for sewing -- I just happen to stick to creating things like quilts and aprons instead of clothes.

All of that to say that I entered a giveaway on a blog that I follow, and I won two adorable pin cushions!!  I am so excited about this!!  And the fact that I can be so happy that I am dancing in my seat thinking about sewing supplies...that is the true miracle.

Thank you, Ellen, of Creative Passage, for this amazing giveaway!  Keep crafting! :-) (And for those of you who want to see what Ellen does, please visit her blog using the link in this post or the button to the side of my posting page.)