My grandmother and sewing.

All day Wednesday that I woke up with pain in my side I thought about my grandmother. She is in her mid 70s, very active and healthy, knock on the woods, but she lives alone. Of course she lives in an apartment building with 24 hour security and there are many retirees that have become like a family to each other, checkup on one another, go out to lunch, etc, and my social grandmother has befriended most of them. But still I was wondering if she feels lonely and thought I should go visit her and not just call her.

Right now I am house-sitting for my parents, taking care of our pets, while they are traveling for work, for the next few months. My mom is my grandmother's oldest and she visited with her at least twice a week when she was home. My uncles and aunts are satisfied with calling my grandmother a few times a week, making sure she has a ride to the grocery Saturday mornings, or that someone is going with her to her doctor's appointments. That is the extent of their involvement with their mother! So I thought since my mom is not in the states for the next few months I should become her surrogate and visit my grandmother often.

I called my grandmother on my break on Wednesday and she asked me to have lunch with her yesterday.  While we were talking suddenly it occurred to me to ask her to teach me how to fit a sewing pattern to my current size.

The women in my family, from my mother's side, are all great seamstresses. My mom has designated room for her sewing and sews about 75% of her outfits. My aunt has made all her daughters' and her nieces', including mine, amazing prom dresses that made everyone in awe. I too can sew but with pattern and without any adjustment!

Last year for example, when I was house sitting again for my parents while they were on vacation, on a rainy Sunday, I went to my mom's sewing room and look in her leftover fabric bin. When I found two fabrics that felt the same and there were about half yard of each I decided to make the Zara dress that I had been wanting to buy, but couldn't find in the shops and since Zara didn't have a online shop for the US customers at that point yet, and I had to pay too much for posting to order it from the UK site, not to mention the currency exchange fee, I gave up on having it. See it was a simple dress, but last year I was very much into Pippa Middleton's style and wanted to have a style just like hers, lol.

Anyhow, when I found a dark green and black jersey type fabrics in my mom's leftovers and then she told me that she has the same fabric, not yet used, in cream and it is mine if I wanted it, I was so excited. Of course I only took a half yard from the cream fabric and made my dress.

It came out OK. It has flaws but I was very comfortable wearing it and thought it looked nice on me. Needless to say with over 40 pounds weight gain I wouldn't even dream of fitting into it anymore. Hopefully sometimes soon!

I want to sew now that my mom's sewing machine is at my disposal, but the vogue patterns that I like to make don't go up the size I am now.  So I thought I could ask my grandmother to teach me how to adjust the readymade patterns for my current size. She told me that she could draw a few basic patterns with my current measurements, which hopefully is shrinking rapidly, and I could start from there.

I found couple of tops that I have been dreaming of having! Of course even if I had the money for them, they don't come in my current size!

 

Anyhow my grandmother took my measurements and draw me the pattern in matter of half an hour. We then went to a fabric store and I found a nice dark red knit fabric for $5. It is almost 2 yards and has a width of 60". I also got a matching thread for $1. We then went back to my grandmother's and cut the fabric. I assembled it in matter of few hours and before dinner I tried it on.

It looks good. It is loose as I wanted; hide my bulges. I like the color. I like that it is longer and covers what needs to be covered, lol.

When I came home last night the first thing I did was to look in my mom's leftover fabrics again to see if I could find more fabrics to work with. I found four similar fabrics in different colors. Later my mom told me they are Bamboo knits. I had never heard of this knit, but it is so soft that I am in love with them. I think I can used them with my new pattern to make something like these.

I shall post pictures later. Now I am off to attend my friend's yoga class.  I am going to my grandmother's for lunch again and then back to work at the gym all afternoon.

Have a great day.