Holiday Week

If you'll recall, I declared this week a holiday in my household. No school!! I had a long list of things that I wanted to get accomplished. What did I actually get done?

Monday, before I started any of my projects, I thought I better give the house a super cleaning. This way I wouldn't feel so guilty devoting my days to sewing; knowing that my house was clean. It took longer than I thought it would though, and Monday left me with a clean house, but no projects done.

Some people at the consulate found out that I know how to sew, and e-mailed my husband to find out if I'd be willing to do some alterations. He gave them our home phone number and one of the ladies called to talk to me about it. I warned her that I am a completely self-taught seamstress; so there are some things I can do, and there are some things I just can't. She said she only had some pants that needed to be taken in at the waist and hemmed on the bottom. I told her to bring them by and I'd see what I could do. Tuesday she brought by a big sack of clothes....7 pairs of pants, and a winter coat with a torn lining. She was in desperate mode and told me that she'd be willing to pay whatever I thought my time was worth; she'd rather give me the money then some alterations place out here that she couldn't trust. I told her that I usually charge $10 an hour; she thought that was fine. Well, here's where the catch comes in....... I've sewn lots of clothing, but I've never done alterations. I really had no idea how much time this would take. Taking in a pair of pants at the waist doesn't sound very hard; but it truly is a lot of work. You have to completely disassemble all 3 or 4 layers of fabric, take them in, and try to reassemble them to look natural. In the end I was very pleased with my work.....you couldn't tell they had been altered at all. Time taken for the pants: 8 hours!! Next I had to work on the coat lining. The only solution for this was to take pieces of fabric (I actually had some that matched almost perfectly) and hand sew them over the torn places. I am now a master of blanket stitches! Time for the hand sewn coat repair: 6 hours!! That's 14 hours @ $10 an hour. I felt so horrible writing out a bill for this lady with a total of $140 dollars due. I was very nervous about her response. My husband took the finished work into her on Thursday and I was very relieved to hear that she had no problem at all paying that much for the work....just the opposite. I was told that she was singing my praises! I guess that makes us both happy....she got her clothes fixed, and I have some extra money to tithe on and save for something special.

Thursday I did finish my quilt top, but haven't yet sandwiched or quilted it. Friday I cut out one pattern for myself, but haven't started sewing it at all. And I still have a couple more alterations jobs waiting for me to get done today. ----I guess I didn't get as much done this week as I was hoping to.

Last night I started teaching myself tatting. Hope sent me a tatting shuttle and thread for my birthday, and I already had the book, so I sat down to figure it out. It's harder than it looks, but I did figure out the basics; and I'm already enjoying it!

The kids have spent all week playing all day, and I'm sure they've really enjoyed themselves. But my 4-yr-old son keeps asking me, "Are we doing school today?" He's really starting to miss it. I think I'm starting to miss it too.....just a little.