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SEWING PARTY

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This weeks farm update from XDFBen

 Sure has been a good year for walnuts based on how many are falling onto our deck and deck table. We have to be careful walking out there or they will bonk us on the head. We have one Horse Chestnut tree back there, too. I planted it from a seed I picked up at our church when I was a kid. Mom says I dug it up every couple days to see if it was growing and it’s a wonder it ever grew. It has a lot of chestnuts on it this year. I like how smooth they are and the rich dark brown of the nuts. (I glued a bunch onto a chair to look like barnacles when we did ‘The Little Mermaid’ at the college).

The other day I picked up daughter and we went home. Two hours later I was going to take her back into town, so I didn’t want to get myself into too much trouble. Don’t get your clothes dirty, I told myself. I backed the hay rack into the shed in case it rained (which it didn’t) but If I had left it out, the 8 bales on it for the next PossAbilities hayride would have gotten rained on for sure.

And then I thought to myself, don’t go dig a hole for the new concrete because if it rains, you’ll have a hole full of water.  And then I went and dug a hole. I didn’t mean to, I meant to just clean up the edges using the tractor loader but I kind of got carried away. I took the excavated dirt back behind the machine shed as I’m building up that area for the lean-to, which is next summer’s project. There was that tree branch hanging down in my way. Course it was coming from 20’ up in a box elder tree and the loader bucket only reaches up 18’. So, I pushed the whole tree over. That’s the thing about box elder trees, they don’t have much of a root to them, and when the ground is wet like this, it’s pretty easy to push one over. A smart person will pay attention to the top of the tree so it doesn’t fall back onto the tractor. I’m grateful I have a cab that is designed to protect the occupant, but I’ve broken a lot of headlights and mirrors pretending I’m in a bulldozer rather than a farm tractor. I pushed that tree over, which leaned onto another tree, so pushed that one over too. None of this was the reason I went outside, but I was in the tractor and didn’t get my clothes dirty.

The third group from PossAbilites had a much warmer day for a hayride. I took a longer route, up on the hills. One kid didn’t want to get out of the van, and that’s alright. A staff member stayed back with them.

Last Saturday we hosted a “Combo Welcome & Movie/Pizza on the Farm Night” for Kelly’s work people, the staff and trainee’s in the Pathology division. It rained during the day and it took some effort to get the bonfire started, and we decided to have the movie in the machine shed because it was darn chilly outside. It was a good group, they ate a lot of pizza and popcorn, and they made a good dent in the 8 gallon rootbeer keg. The movie was our favorite, ‘Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium’.

You know, back when daughter graduated from high school we got a rootbeer keg. That was the first time I ever tapped a keg. My brother isn’t sure how we’re related if I had never tapped a keg before. So now I’ve tapped 2 kegs! Both rootbeer. My brother says I’ll be ready for actual beer next. 

At the college I’ve been working on shirt sleeves. Swapped sleeves from some shirts to other shirts, and shortened them enough they still qualify as sleeves to keep admin happy, but not long enough to bug me. And this summer my nephew-in-law Justin gave me a Hawaiian shirt, with the sleeves cut off, because he had described me as “flowery”. In a good way! It didn’t have a pocket, but he dug one of the sleeves out of the garbage, and I added a pocket. All told, I swapped 4 sets of shirt sleeves. I’m not very good at sewing. I can manage, but it isn’t pretty. Good thing the seams are inside.

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Sewing is sort of like construction. Just with other tools. When I was a kid, mom would let me fill the bobbin. I always loved threading the machine, and the bobbin on the little spindle that would “pop” over when full fascinated me for whatever mysterious reason. I didn’t bother changing thread on these sleeves. I picked a purple thread that matched some of the sleeves, and a teal colored bobbin thread and I just used them for everything because I like the colors. I tried using pins but I struggled more than one would expect with pins. It made me think of the strawberry pin cushion mom had. I wondered if I should get a pin cushion for the costume room, as opposed to the box of pins in there now. A magnetic one? Do I think it really matters?? I thought about thimbles too, and playing with them. And I had happy memories of mom. You never know do you; you let your kid do something, and 50 years later they’re swapping shirt sleeves. 

Every mechanic knows you don’t tighten up all the bolts until everything is assembled and yet here I was struggling with getting the bolts lined up on the manifold for the 630. And there’s three gaskets in the middle of all of this and they shift and move while trying to get it all in place. There are six bolts that attach the intake and exhaust manifold to the tractor, and four bolt that hold the intake to the exhaust. I tightened the four bolts first, which is why I couldn’t get the other six all in place. I messed with it for an hour trying this that and some other things. Finally realized I had tightened those bolts. I loosened them, got all six bolts in place, THEN tightened everything up. Just like a professional.

Yeah, I should have put gloves on. Usually I do, this time I got ahead of my self. Between the black gasket maker goop, and the silver ‘Never-seez’ I put on the bolts, it took a while to clean my hands when I was done. all that fussing and I never got grumpy or mad about it. And that’s interesting. I have such a pleasant time working in the shop. Course working on the 630, part of that is, as I told Kelly, when I was milking cows usually I was fixing something because it was broke and I needed it and I didn’t have time to be messing around. I just needed the darn thing fixed ASAP to get on with whatever. But this is sort of a ‘just because’ repair so there’s no pressure– other than my mechanic for the carburetor asking me if I have the tractor running yet, so now I feel like he’s judging me. Other than that, no pressure. And I like that.

SEWING BY HAND AND THIMBLES AND PIN CUSHIONS. WHAT ABOUT THEM? WHAT PIN CUSHION SHOULD I GET?

64 thoughts on “SEWING PARTY”

  1. I like the pin cushion that’s shaped like a tomato or a wide, round strawberry, with a little strawberry attached by a green cord. The little strawberry is usually filled with some kind of grit, so that you can sharpen your needles on it.

    I love crafts and embroidery, but not sewing by hand. I don’t do fine, careful stitches when I have to sew something by hand. I find myself impatient and I just want it done. Then I get messy, uneven stitches that are too big.

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  3. I probably do more sewing than you do, Ben, and I don’t have a thimble or a pincushion either. As to thimbles, if my fingers are tough enough that a thimble isn’t necessary, yours surely are. And good luck finding one that would fit anyway. They make leather thimbles that might be more accommodating and would feel more natural as well.

    Right now I keep my pins in a box. I should get myself a pincushion so that it’s easier to pick up one pin at a time. For that I would choose something that sits flat on a table and presents the pins upright. I can’t see where a magnetic pin holder would be much improvement on a box.

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      1. I just finished one with toy robots on the yoke. The robot fabric I designed and had printed.

        Most of the hand sewing I do is just basting so it doesn’t have to be pretty.

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  4. I have one of those tomato cushions. And I like the pins with the little different colored plastic heads on them. The funny part is that this pincushion lives downstairs and the only time I use it is during the holidays to hang up cards that we’ve been sent. We have six ribbons that we hang in the dining room and put the cards on them.

    I’m not much of a summer. I did learn in junior high in Home Ec. I’ve sewn a few things in my life, but I’m a little too impatient for sewing. The last sewing project was a couple of years back. All of my shorts were too long for me. I like shorter shorts than is currently the fashion. So I hemmed up all of them. Five pairs.

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  7. I like doing my hand mending while Husband has his turn reading aloud. But anything I can mend on the machine is better – I just have to go to my sewing corner in the basement…

    My favorite pin cushion is the one Robin (Bill’s wife, and my book-club buddy) gave us one Christmas – it is beautiful, pillow-shaped, so doesn’t roll, and sits on my sewing machine.

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  8. I got a Kenmore sewing machine in Grade 5 and it kept going until 10 years ago. I got a Nicci then, but hardly ever used it. We took it to the thrift store last week. Best Friend who will be living with us in Luverne is a quilter, and I won’t need a sewing machine anymore.

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    1. My old Kenmore that I use for making shirts is one I bought at an estate sale for $12.50. It’s identical to another Kenmore machine that Robin keeps as a back-up machine. That one Robin bought in the ‘70s when we were first married and it is the one I’ve also used over the years when we were making historical reenactment clothing and also costuming for Hopkins High School productions, so I know it intimately. My machine suits my needs. I only do straight stitches, since all my shirt seams are flat felled.

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        1. Especially down the sleeves. But once you’ve done it, you never have to worry about the seams and it’s just more finished looking.

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  9. I like the tomato-shaped pin cushion I’ve had since high school. The strawberry was lost many years ago. I sewed more when I was younger than I do now. My favorite projects were Halloween costumes. My kids had homemade costumes every year. My favorites were my son’s Captain Hook costume (lots of lace and fancy braiding) and my daughter’s Belle costume (Beauty and the Beast). There was also a really cute Dalmatian puppy costume, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, a dinosaur, and a few others. I don’t sew much any more except to repair things. My Singer sewing machine still works.

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  11. When I get home, the first thing I do is switch pants from belted pants to lightweight pants with a tie waistband. Tight things bug me. I take socks off right away too. However the exercise pants for my waist size come in much too long an inseam. It costs more than the pants cost to have them professionally hemmed up. My quilting, clothes-making mother taught me a little bit about hand sewing, but the cloth is stretchy, making it difficult to make a neat job of it. I wear them only at home or going down the hall to get the mail.
    I use safety pins to hold the cloth in place, and I use a thimble. I have also done some stitching in much heavier cloth, mending I cannot remember what, which required me to buy even heavier thimbles.
    My mother the last 30 years of her life kept all the thimbles she wore out doing the masses of quilts. She had a small plastic bucket full by the time she also wore out her fingers and quit sewing.

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  12. Before the introduction of heated seam tape, we sowed carpets together using heavy, waxed thread and large needles both straight and curved. It was a pain having to flip the carpet to face down and get a peak. Thimbles were important due to penatrating stiff backing. The baseball stich was normal.

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  13. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Well, Baboons, who knew there was so much interest in thimbles and pin cushions? I have an old Singer sewing machine that was my grandmother’s. She, my mother, and my aunt all bought identical sewing machines in Sioux City, Iowa in the early 60s. I accompanied them that day to the Singer store. Watching those three frugal women part with the money for the sewing machines was fascinating. They bargained and dickered over them for an hour at least and discussed it for months and years thereafter. Those beasts are entirely metal and will last forever. I still use mine which the newer one I will dispose of. Pincushions: tomato and a gerryrigged one I use as a wrist pincushion. I have several thimbles that I use occasionally.

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  15. My father could work in leather. I always wanted the tools and told him so, but he gave them to somebody else. He repaired tack, which is stitching on a different level. Tools included punches that would set down a line of holes. In heavy work like the main straps of harnesses the line comes through from both directions. He loved the work and made it look finished. The clamps were aesthetically pleasing too.

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  16. I learned to sew in junior high Home Ec class but never enjoyed it. It seemed too fussy and I didn’t have the patience for it. I could sit at the piano for hours but not even 5 minutes at a sewing machine. I do have a tiny sewing box for small hand sewing projects (repairing ripped seams, buttons, etc.). It contains a small thimble that rarely gets used. My pincushion is the round strawberry – never knew until today that the small strawberry had a use. The only pins in it are the straight ones with small plastic colored heads. They are used to mark places I have been to on a framed laminated world map.

    My younger sister is an excellent seamstress. Over the years she has sewed quite a few things for me. When I was in college, she sewed a down sleeping bag. It was a kit – can’t remember the name of it but maybe someone on the Trail knows what it was. This was back in the early 70s.

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    1. Wasband and I sewed our own down sleeping bags and also down parkas back in the early 1970s. Our kits were from Frostline, I believe. Now there’s a memory that hasn’t been brought out of storage until now. It’s a little dusty but still intact.

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  20. I have the traditional tomato pincushion, also one shaped like a turtle. And I have one that I made from a canning jar. Kind of like this one: https://makeandtakes.com/make-a-pin-cushion-jar

    The jar I used is taller and I use it to store bits of ribbon and string and that sort of thing.

    I have never really used a thimble, although I do have a couple. If I have trouble forcing a needle through a thick seam I usually use a hard surface like a table, or whatever is handy. I think of thimbles as decorative objects for a thimble display case, or Monopoly markers, rather than sewing tools.

    A magnetic parts holder is a good thing to have – if you spill your box of pins, you can quickly pick them up with the magnet. And locate that needle you dropped that blends in with the rug.

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  21. For a while, Robin was actively collecting thimbles. Most of what you encounter are generic cheap metal ones and also those “collectible” ceramic thimbles that were sold to be displayed on a little rack and never meant to be used. The ones Robin sought were unusual metal ones, sometimes brass or silver. Among thimble collectors there are manufacturers who are most desirable. Robin has moved on to other interests but she still has a box of dozens of thimbles.

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    1. There is a cute scene in The Big Picture with Kevin Bacon in which he’s waiting for a meeting and looks down to see a producers thimble collection. His imagination gets them dancing. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the clip but it’s a great movie!

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  22. i sew seldom. i do hems and repairs when short sleeved shirt slevees come unhemmed . if i can get to sox as the heel holes start i will try to stall the discard. my sister pointed out after she quit wearing open heeled birkies that her caloused heel went away. its a birkie thing and her sox dont wear out any more
    i had a sucrets shaped pin cushion growing up. none now or a thimble

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  23. Sandra rebounds a bit and then sinks and rebounds a bit. The ceiling is a magic place. She has spend the last hour humming and singing to the people up there. Now she is agitated about the quilt my mother made which is her blanket. Being agitated about bed clothes is common near the end. Ironically it is the stitches on the strip around the perimeter that has her attention. She can’t see the stitches but feeling them is the issue, which is hard because they are so small and tight.

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  24. OT to Renee, I bought some very lightweight fabric packing containers for clothing and linens. They have zippers and handles at the sides. They worked great for my recent move. If you’re interested, I’ll package them up and mail them to you. I don’t have room to keep them and it’s worth it to me to give them to someone who can reuse them. They’re clean and have been used once, by me.

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