Do you have projects that are almost done, except for one tiny step? The step that you don't like to do?
I hate to do buttonholes, even though my Pfaff 2141 does wonderful buttonholes. All the machines I had before must have scarred me for life, because I still put off doing the buttonholes. But this shirt has been done and ready for the buttonholes for over a month, just sitting on my sewing desk, giving me the stinkeye. I don't like to start new projects until I finish the old ones, or the unfinished items get set aside out of my sight and then I never finish them. I know myself well enough to know this. I must finish this NOW or it will fall down the memory hole and one day get found in the closet of doom, never finished. It's pretty too. It is a fine Japanese cotton print and I did a nice job of matching the design, if I say so myself. Not perfect, but close enough. (Besides, trying to be perfect is just inviting insanity.) It's for Mr. Hunting Creek and he's been hinting that he'd like to wear it now that it is warm. He even wore the other shirt I made for him as a gentle reminder of how much he appreciates my handiwork. I took the shirt yesterday and remarked the buttonholes, once with a chalk pencil and also with a pin next to the mark, because the pattern is busy and the marks are hard to see. I use a very retro method to mark them - I take his old shirt that I made (those buttonholes are perfectly placed), I lay it on top, pin it in place and then mark through those buttonholes. Retro , but effective. Now all I have to do is make them, then sew on the buttons.
I'll set up the machine and do a few practice ones to get warmed up and then I'll be done. It never seems like a big deal once I start to do them and I always wonder why I put it off so long. I wish that here in Virginia they had places like those in New York where they do your buttonholes for just a few dollars. But driving to New York from here for four buttonholes might strike some people (Mr.Hunting Creek among them) as excessive.
What sewing tasks do you avoid?
5 comments:
Buttonholes, Invisible zippers. I hate them both.
Mending. Blah and blah.
I have the Burdastyle Anda done except for the hem. It has now been three weeks and I could be wearing it. But I'm so sure it's going to be uneven I can't get motivated. I have a great dress from last summer that after wearing realized the back hem was all janky (bias!) that I also have to take apart and rehem. Arggghh!
I also get nervous about buttonholes, but the more I do them, the better they're looking. Having a proper buttonhole cutter has helped tremendously. (But if you find a professional buttonhole-maker in Northern Virginia, please let me know!) Oh, by the way, your banana bread recipe is fabulous!
I used to hate buttonholes but I have finally reached some kind of peace with them. I have been stuck on welt pockets with flap for months. I just don't want to do them. They will be meticulous but not hard and really won't take that long, but I am having a mental block against all that marking and hand basting and then the nerve wracking moment of slicing into your fashion fabric so I've been putting them off. But I am the same--a project must get finished before a new one is started or it will remain a UFO forever.
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