Only sixteen months late...

In my start-of-year energised crafting mode, I have started several projects lined up for some time. Or rather, I have tried to - but discovered that the dress patterns are the wrong size, and I am missing one essential item (eg pair of knitting needles of a certain size, not quite enough yarn) for all my queued projects. So until I hit the craft shop for the missing links, I've taken the opportunity to complete another never-quite-finished project.

Do you remember this shirt? I bought it from a local second-hand shop in September 2012. I was planning on pimping it up slightly by changing the buttons, but discovered after I'd bought the buttons that they were too big for the buttonholes. Never mind, thought I, this is an opportunity to teach myself how to sew buttonholes. And in July 2013, after throwing a tantrum at the sewing machine, I did indeed start to unpick, enlarge and restitch the buttonholes by hand.

And now, finally, it is finished. Only seventeen months after I started.

On the plus side, I do now know how to stitch buttonholes by hand.

Slowing down should not be rushed

I'm feeling a little embarrassed about my tantrum yesterday - so petty to get so worked up about something so small. I'll leave it up, though, because it is honest. It's not that infrequent for me to get deeply annoyed because I've spent the whole day at work looking forward to some crafting activity, and then I am disappointed in this when I get home.

It's a reminder, I think, not to be in too much of a hurry about slowing down. Building a simple life doesn't happen overnight, it takes time, and the journey should be savoured as an end in itself, not just the means. I had forgotten this last night, but that story had a happy ending - I started with something I could do and sewed on the buttons. I felt calmer after this, remembered the pliers in the cupboard, liberated my seam ripper from its casing and was able to complete one buttonhole before I curled up with a mug of cocoa (inspired by Jane Brockett's Cherry cake and ginger beer)

It's actually by far the best buttonhole I've done yet! I'm using a slightly different stitch (see tutorial here) and it's coming out much more evenly. I think I might need to redo the bars along the bottom, they're sticking out a bit too much, but other than that, not bad for my first ever buttonhole on an actual garment! I'm feeling pretty chuffed.

Next time I'm feeling this frustration, I will take a look at the teeth marks (!) on my seam ripper and remember to slow down, rather than getting worked up.

Technology fail

There have been quite a few posts around blogland recently about honesty in blogging - about how often we only share the good bits, perhaps because we're trying to fool ourselves that our lives really do look that picture perfect.

This evening, I have entirely failed to stitch a buttonhole. An attempt to do so with a machine had me with screw driver, tweezers and scissors trying to excise a ginormous tangle from the depths of machine.

Thinking, 'sod it, I'll do this old-school', the sewing machine went away and out came the needle for hand-worked buttonholes. But oh no. The stitch ripper has jammed - I must have rammed it into its lid too tightly, and I've spent fifteen minutes trying to get it out, resulting in sore fingers and no buttonhole.

My alloted time for crafting has elapsed, leaving me annoyed and frustrated and with NO BUTTONHOLES.

So that's honesty.

UPDATE: Judicious application of pliers has resolved one part of my difficulty. Now I just need to stitch the buttonholes.