We Were In Stitches

Courtesy Pixabay

Knowing how to hand sew is not one of my better known skills. It has come in handy on many occasions.

It started in the sixth grade after splitting my pants. I was sitting in the school's home economics class on recess in my gym shorts painstakingly imitating the back stitching already existing from when my mom made the pants on her sewing machine. Recess was burning up faster than the split was closing and finally the teacher had pity and intervened. She took my pants and showing me a quick running stitch and had me decent for class in no time. When I got home, my mom wasn't too impressed with the quick stitching and pulled it all back out. My back stitching was just fine.

When one of the guys in college asked me to do some sewing for him, I offered to loan him the needle and thread and provide lessons. He declined and went whining to one of the ladies on campus to do it for him instead. I'm all heart aren't I?

My sewing did lead to a bit of real fun on campus. One of my female Canadian friends was looking for the perfect practical joke for one of her American dorm mates who was away visiting family. We borrowed a great deal of the young lady's clothes and sewed little Canadian flags all over them, sitting in one of the student lounges. We had an absolute blast. She'd finish sewing a little flag on the back of a pair of underwear. “Look at this!” and we'd be all but rolling on the floor. We entertained each other for several hours. The prank was a great success. The poor woman was finding flags for weeks.