needle and thREAD, the flop edition

Oh *sigh*.  I did sew this past week, honest I did.  I just have nothing to show for it, I'm afraid!

I was so excited, you see.  I had this funky elastic-y stuff I had found a while back and I was dying to try it.

Can you see in the pictures, how you are supposed to take this band and sew it into your project and then pull the strings to create a pleated sort of gather?  Well, I was all about this pleated gathering business. I thought it would be super cute to make a skirt for myself since I hardly ever sew clothes, especially for your's truly.

Perhaps it could have gone better.

To start, someone cut a hole in the middle of my lovely fabric.

Ah hem!  Let's just say, I did not put that there.  They do make safety scissors sharp these days, now don't they?  No worries.  I soldiered on and made it work, with a little help of course.

Unfortunately, all the help in the world could not save me from the disastrous results that followed...

I discovered that makers of elastic need to institute an important little thing called an EXPIRATION DATE!  I know because something downright terrifying occurred when I tried to put that neato-elastic pleating stuff into my skirt.

It was, it turns out, a half century past it's prime.

Horrors!

Here I had spent all of that precious time on what I hoped would be a bang-up job and my starring featured was ruined!  Nearly defeated, I rummaged through my stash until I came up with three narrow pieces of elastic somewhere near the appropriate sizes to put together for one big waistband of a similar effect, and with great determination and not a little annoyance, I got them into the waistband.

And then I tried it on and looked in the mirror, shoved the whole darn thing -- unfinished -- into the dark recesses of my sewing cabinet, and vowed never again to think a thirty-one-year old woman could possibly pull off a skirt with a gathered waistband!

Dash it all..

At least things have been better in the thREAD world!  I scored a delightful stack of children's literature for a couple of dollars at an estate sale and my girls (2 & 4 years) and I have been discovering them together.

In Curious George Takes a Job, George jumps off of a building and breaks his leg.  My children find this fascinating.  Ever since that one time ZouZou (my two-year-old) went to the emergency room to have a popcorn kernel removed from her nose, the girls are enthralled with hospitals and doctors (from a distance, anyway :o).  Come to the Doctor Harry is simple and short.  The kids haven't picked up the George and Martha books yet, but just looking at their covers brings back childhood memories for me.  A Baby Sister for Frances is a bit on the wordy side, but so clever and fun and enjoyable for my four-year-old.  Henry the Explorer is new to me.  The illustrations are really cute and colorful.  Henry has a dog named Laird Angus McAngus and that might possibly be the best name for a dog, ever!

Maybe next week I'll have more of my own reading to report.  In the meantime storybook reading is good for the soul, no?

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Head on over to In the Heart of My Home for more needle and thREAD.  See you there!