So. It’s a simple skirt I’m trying to sew. But as usual, I find a way to mess things up and make more work for myself.

I got up this morning at 6:30 and felt like sewing. This is somewhat unusual for me at that hour. I opened the windows, turned on NPR, had my morning cup of tea… My God, am I 78-years-old or what?

I’ve got the skirt together and just need to put in a waistband and hem it. I started working away, got the waistband halfway attached and was feeling pretty good about the project.

On the other hand, I felt shitty about being down about certain aspects of my life in light of the huge earthquake in China. My problems certainly paled in comparison to pulling children from rubble and I resolved not to get so caught up in the minutia of my life. Think big picture and all that.

Then I put a hot, steaming iron on the lining of the skirt by accident and it burned like human hair touched with a flame. I had a hole with crusty, blackened sides.

This is what sewing is like for me. It’s a test of patience and stamina. Just when you think its only a matter of a waistband and some hemming, which can easily be done while watching TV, something goes wrong. I cut something I shouldn’t  cut. I sew something on backwards. I burn a hole in something. Shit.

So the rest of my sewing time was spent fashioning a patch out of more lining and applying it to the hole, after trimming away the scabby parts. I just didn’t have the heart to tear out the entire lining. I can live with a patch no one will see, even if it sort of makes me feel like Coal Miner’s Daughter.

And I still haven’t finished the waistband or hemming. Ran out of time and had to get ready to go to work. Sigh.