A Beginner's Guide to Sewing

It’s Zack again! I’m gonna assume no one took Maxine seriously while reading the last story. It’s not like she was all that great in the garden either. And she clearly couldn’t handle Ivana. Well, it’s my turn to tell a story. I think I’m gonna go for the time she tried to fix her coat. Ivana ripped it and took of a button. And if you look at her, she’s the most innocent, harmless thing on the planet. Ok anyway, onwards.

“Mom, Ivana ripped my coat again!” “Well, this is the third coat she’s ruined this month. Why don’t you close your wardrobe properly?” “Ugh fine, whatever. What do I do about this as of now?” “Well, you can most certainly fix it yourself.” “Mom, you know I’m no good with a needle.” “I want this coat fixed by today evening.” With these instructions, Mrs Lavigne, clearly satisfied at having the last words in this fight, walked out of the room and came back in a minute later with a needle, thread and hoop. “Here, first re-attach the buttons, then seam up the hole.”

“Alright,” Max, groaned, putting the hoop on the shirt. Well, attempting to. On the first try, she put the outer ring on the inside. After she realized what she did. She put the hoop on the right way, then tried to tighten the fabric. It popped off. She tried again and got her finger squeezed.

After ten minutes of trying, she finally succeeded. Now to thread the needle. She grabbed the needle and rolled out a little bit of thread. Then she tried to get the thread to go through the eye of the needle. After a few minutes, she realized she was holding the needle the wrong way. So she turned it over, wet the thread and, continued trying. A few failed attempts, but finally, it went through. Max rolled out some more thread, cut it off and tied a knot.

Holding the button in place and trying to get the needle to go through was hard. Finally, Max realized she could just slide the needle through, and then put the button on that. Now the struggle was getting it to go back in through the other hole. On the first try, the button moved away. Then she held the button in place. But the hoop loosened and fell. The next try, she stopped using the hoop and did it. The button was finally back on the coat.

Next up was fixing the seams. There was one long slit and the thread there was missing. Once again, Maxine slipped in the thread, tied a knot, and began. She turned the coat inside out and slid the thread in through the first hole. In and out, in and out, until she pricked her finger. HARD. After finding a bandage, and some gloves, she continued stitching it up, until the hole was closed. Then she flipped it back and tried it on. It was FAR too tight. Oh, well, she mumbled to herself and opened the stitches again.

For the third time in two and a half hours, she was threading a needle, tying a knot, and doing her best to stitch up the hole. She took the jacket and began the process all over again. Hold the two ends together, insert the needle, and then begin moving it in and out in a forward direction. Then, you look at the jacket and realize that you have forgotten to turn it inside out and have stitched up the wrong side. Wow.

After all this, Max was done. She had pricked her fingers so much, and the jacket didn’t even work. At that point, her mom walked into the room. One look at the jacket and she said, “I’m guessing this is your way of saying you do not know how to stitch, don’t wanna bother learning it, and just want me to go buy you a new jacket. Well, fine. Get in the car we’re going to JC Penny.”

So there it is. Yet another one of those stories which prove even Max isn’t perfect. I enjoy this. Well, now she’s here. Gotta go! Bye!