A new challenge

For the past three weeks, I have spent two hours every Tuesday and Thursday night in a sewing class at my church. Several of our senior adult ladies are experts in this field; likewise there were several of us who were completely clueless as to how to sew. Our senior adult ladies saw this as a ministry opportunity to use their gifts in keeping with admonition of Titus 2:3-5 that the "older women should teach and encourage the younger women". I could write an entire post about the Godly cross-generational fellowship we've had and the lasting relationships that have been formed as a result. Truly, it has been one of the most unique and meaningful ministries I've witnessed at our church.

I want to publicly thank my sweet husband for his role in this endeavor. On Tuesday nights he has faithfully been available to keep Turner, get her bathed and in bed before I even returned home. On Thursday nights, he's graciously allowed me to bring her to his office during a very important weekly training meeting - then he's brought her home and taken care of bath and bedtime yet again before I returned home. (Note: I am always out of the house on Wednesday nights for choir practice and Turner and Mark have some quality Daddy-Daughter time. So we knew in advance this meant I was going to be away from home now three nights per week for the duration of this class.) As soon as the dates were published for this class he emailed me and told me I was going to attend - that it didn't matter what that did to our schedules - he knew this was something I wanted to do so he would make it happen. Such a sweet man. Such a blessing to have a husband that I know does as good of a job, if not a better job, than I do taking care of our daughter.

I am using my Granny's sewing machine which I know is older than I am. I watched her almost every day of my childhood as she created "something out of nothing" in front of my young eyes. Even though I thought I'd have "dinosaur" machine of the class, it was humorous to me how many of the ladies commented on the quality and efficiency of my machine as compared to the newer (as they termed them "plastic") models. I chuckled at the thought of my Granny laughing in heaven that her sewing machine was getting all the accolades in the company of the more expensive newer models! Each time I open the case the smell of her house floods my nose, so this has been a bit of a nostalgic experience for me as well as an educational one. I know that she would be so proud of what I have learned.

Here are the fruits of my labor over the last three weeks. Certainly not perfection, but I think a pretty good start! I already have more fabric ready and waiting for an opportunity to try these two patterns again!

The first two pictures are of the same outfit - I took on a little more challenging project of making a reversible top for this shorts set. My good friend Dawn was so kind to embroider and applique this for me and I think it's just precious!


This picture is of the orange, blue, and white gingham pillowcase dress I finished tonight - a project I did largely on my own without the assistance of my new sewing "buddies". These dresses cost about $30 in boutiques in downtown Auburn so I was pretty happy with my creation that cost approximately $10!


I will be sure to post more pictures of any new projects that I complete!