Kids Sure Can Surprise You

I don’t normally talk about my kids much, in part because my oldest is a private sort of person and also because it’s not fair to tell their stories for them. However, this time I can’t resist. I’ve just had my own assumption handed to me by my youngest in the best way possible.

P.S. My oldest isn’t offering a shoddy showing either having just been named a contender for the National Merit Scholarship Award :).

Anyway, a little bit of back story is necessary.

Some years ago, my oldest earned a role in a high school performance of Fiddler on the Roof, his first up here in Reno. I’m the type who’s willing, though not particularly able, and so volunteered to help with costuming.

We were assigned the Russian peasant blouses. The provided pattern was a mess of tiny triangles and bumps on the edges (which I cut off not realizing they were fancy guides), and fussy little pieces. It took something like 7 of us (only one real sewer in the bunch) 5 hours to cut out (not sew mind you) 3 of the some 12 blouses. The experience left my head spinning and achy.

A friend, who is both a quilter and medieval costumer extraordinaire, happened to be visiting and she laughed at my woe. When she was done laughing, though, she offered salvation. A quick look at the Internet, a snip and sew on some muslin while I recorded every step as jotted notes on a piece of printer paper, and she gave me a medieval geometric pattern that made sense, and more to the point, made shirts!

I took to this pattern very well, and have even been able to modify the pattern several times to produce other costumes for later plays. The scribbled directions (in my own horrible handwriting) have become my treasured papers, stored carefully for the next adventure.

So now jump to modern day and my second son, who is fifteen. He has to give a historical presentation in full costume. What does he decide? He’s going to make a shirt and pants.

Time’s running short and I’m terrified at the concept. He’s decent with hand sewing, but the kid has never touched a sewing machine in his life.

And the measuring tape has vanished.

And he measured everything with no thought to seam allowance, because he’s NEVER done this before. And he’s thinking two-dimensionally rather than three…

I want you to imagine how much of a stress case I am at this point. It’s his project but I’m terrified he’ll dump it in my lap at the last moment when it’s too much for him, and my lap is already buried under an amazing number of things these couple of weeks.

Then he describes the shirt and I have an epiphany. As long as he does thinner arms, the magic pattern will serve. *Cue miracle music.*

Now remember there’s still the issue of him having never made a single piece of clothing in his life. Patching does not directly translate to being a tailor. But at least I have a guide for him that I trust and can rely on.

First we redo all the measurements. Then we drag out the Fiddler notes for the 7 shirts that were done with this pattern and compare them to make sure we haven’t missed something.

After that we have to redo some of the measurements, but at least we’re making progress. To give you some sense of the mountain we’re climbing, here’s what was necessary:
Jacob's Shirt

1 ) Figure out the how *yay magic pattern*.

2 ) Figure out the measurements (with a string and a carpenter’s retractable measuring tape).

3 ) Figure out how to get the pieces we need out of the fabric he bought for this, two small table cloths from a resale shop.

4 ) Teach him how to cut cloth using my rotary blade mat and quilting rulers (but normal scissors), including doing a diagonal cut to make two piece that are 5 inches on one end and 6 on the other out of a rectangle.

5 ) Teach him how to thread a sewing machine (down to what a bobbin is and where the on-off switch is (and most importantly to turn the machine OFF when he’s not actively sewing because I don’t want to see what my cats think are proper clothes).

6 ) Figure out the right tension for his cloth and what stitch to use (something I learned how to do in the past three years to give you some sense of my skill level).

7 ) Teach him how to pin the cloth together so that when he’s done, the seam is on the inside not the outside.

8 ) Teach him how to sew a seam and to keep the cloth in place so that it’s a consistent width (my machine does have a built-in walking foot to help with that thank goodness).

9 ) Teach him how to use a seam ripper (required for one of the steps in the pattern).

10) Verify the measurements to make sure he doesn’t need to add a strip to the arms to make them wide enough.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten some steps in there, and some he had to figure out himself, like that he can’t do good side to good side when hemming the collar slit, but here’s the thing, besides demonstrating, ALL I did was set the tension. That’s it.

We did the figuring out and some of the cutting during a 3-hour delayed start. He worked on the rest after school, with me guiding for some of it, but then I had to run off for 2.5 hours or so, leaving him to his own devices.

When I got home? He was done.

And it looks good.

It’s not a great photo (taken with a cell phone) but the above photo is of his completed shirt.

So there you go. This is the same boy who when faced with an essay question to “define something he thought he couldn’t do and how he managed to overcome it” could not come up with anything that had seemed undoable. He decided he would do it, and from then on, it was just getting it done. Nothing felt insurmountable (ignoring the panicked hair tearing from his mother must have been the easy part :p).

I wish I had an ounce of his confidence when jumping off the map into new territory.

Now you want the funny part?

Remember how this miracle pattern came from Fiddler? Well, the role my older son had for that play was the tailor ;).

This entry was posted in Appreciation, Kids and Cats, Life. Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to Kids Sure Can Surprise You

  1. jjmcgaffey says:

    I do love D’s tunic pattern (yeah, not hers ab origine, but she’s how it got into this family – twice!). I’ve used it on three tunics so far. Congrats to J on a new skill! (Aren’t I clever with the initials? You know who I mean…)

  2. MarFisk says:

    LOL! Actually, you had me completely confused with the D, but I think we’re on the same page. This is not actually her tunic pattern. It’s a pouffy shirt pattern that she basically constructed on the fly from looking at an Internet site with me sitting there scribbling down notes that are half readable. But I remember it took me hours to make my first tunic using the tunic pattern, which should be around here somewhere unless it got lost in the move :p, and _I_ already knew how to sew.

  3. Dona says:

    Well it is the same basic pattern. The geometric patterning was used for a very long time for clothing and is still used today in some underwear! Very easy to tweak to a specific time period too! I am glad you can still use it. If you need to footnote the pattern let me know, I can send you off to the archeological dig sites I got it from. 😉

    • MarFisk says:

      Yeah, well, that’s how I’ve been able to turn it into everything from coats to kimonos :). You wouldn’t happen to have a simple geometric pattern for the pants would you? I did some searches but haven’t hit on any yet, and there again, he’s thinking in 2D. I’m trying to avoid uncomfortable surprises :D.

      • Dona says:

        Um, actually yeah. Let me do some digging about and I will email the link to you. 🙂

        • MarFisk says:

          Fantastic :). Then I’ll hand it over to my expert tailor. Hey, I could get used to this. I’ll never need to sew again :D.

  4. Deirdre says:

    Nicely done 🙂 and besides, I think J (and the rest of your family) is used to dealing with your hair pulling…it’s pretty much how you motivate yourself!

    • MarFisk says:

      LOL! And hey! Revealing my secrets to the world. Though I think if people read my writing posts, they’ve probably figured that much out themselves even without ever meeting me.

  5. >(and most importantly to turn the machine OFF when he

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